When considering what indoor plants to buy, majesty palms may be on your list. They’re the perfect addition to offices, living room areas, and bathrooms as an extra design layer.
However, they don’t only contribute to design; they also bring other benefits to your home. So, if you’re looking for a sign on whether to get a majesty palm, here it is. Read on to learn more about the majesty palm benefits you should know about.
What Is Majesty Palm?
Majesty palms (Ravenea rivularis) have gained popularity as indoor plants. They typically adorned the side of river banks with their lush and majestic fronds.
These plants are native to Madagascar, where they can reach an astonishing height of 100 feet and a width of 20 feet. However, since many homeowners are growing them indoors, majesty palms only reach 10 feet and are about 6 feet wide.
In some cases, homeowners only manage to get them to grow about 3 to 5 feet inside the house. Other growers prefer to plant them outside in gardens to add height and variety to their plant collection. Majesty palms naturally grow in African soils. That’s why they’re more accustomed to acidic soils with USDA hardiness zones between 10 and 11.
Majesty Palm Benefits
Aside from having beautiful foliage, majesty palms also offer some benefits, such as:
1. Air Purification
Like many indoor palm plants, majesty palms also improve indoor air quality. This plant can be beneficial for providing oxygen around the room, removing carbon monoxide, and eliminating harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Provides Oxygen
If a place needs oxygen boost, an indoor palm plant like the majesty palm can be helpful. You won’t even need to do anything aside from keeping the plant alive!
All palm plants perform their respiratory function by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. This function is especially more frequent during the day when they produce about 10 times more oxygen.
Removes Carbon Monoxide
Adding a majesty palm indoors can help remove excess carbon monoxide. Majesty palms can release more oxygen than can easily replace carbon monoxide in the air.
Carbon monoxide can be lethal in large quantities. You won’t even know how much carbon monoxide is in the air unless you have a detector; that’s why it’s called the “silent killer.” Modern homes typically have a lot of appliances that release carbon monoxide. It can come from your gas heaters, faulty fireplaces, wood stoves, and clothes dryers.
Since carbon monoxide forms as a byproduct of incomplete combustion, it’s necessary to introduce more oxygen to control the carbon monoxide levels. By doing so, carbon monoxide will react with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, which is much safer to breathe.
Eliminates VOCs
Another thing contributing to air quality is the amount of VOCs in the air. VOCs can have adverse health effects, especially if there isn’t sufficient ventilation inside the house.
VOC build-up can come from the simplest household materials, such as particle boards and plywood, air fresheners, cleaning products, and electronics. Sometimes, they may even release VOCs when they’re in storage.
Plants can absorb up to 87% of VOCs in the air, which includes formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene. So, it can be beneficial to add a majesty plant indoors to help with decreasing VOC levels.
2. Decoration
Of course, growing majesty palms indoors can also give a tropical esthetic character to your home. Their lush and green foliage can adapt to virtually any aesthetic, from modern to Scandinavian to even comfy cottage.
However, to make these plants thrive, you must provide them with the proper care.
You can place these plants in the corners of your home where there’s exposure to sunlight. However, you can also choose a spot with less exposure as long as they occasionally get sunlight.
Another ideal place for majesty palms is the bathroom. That’s because they thrive in above-average levels of humidity. In the case of less humid rooms, you can turn to a handy humidifier to help increase the humidity level. Try to reach at least 50% humidity.
While majesty palms love growing in moist and damp soil, they don’t enjoy excessively wet soil. So, it’s important not to dry their soil in between waterings.
3. Pet-Safe
Majesty palms are one of the many palm plants that you can freely have in your home. They’re primarily safe because they don’t have any irritating compounds that can harm your cats or dogs.
Some palms, such as sago palms, can be toxic to household pets because of their cycasin content. Fortunately, majesty palms don’t have this chemical in their plant parts.
However, you may want to keep them away from cats. That’s because cats tend to play with their arching fronds, especially when it’s windy. Cats may also like the leaves’ texture, so they eat some of the plant’s ferns. This won’t harm your cat, but it will ruin the aesthetic of your plant.
One way to remedy this is by spritzing cat-repellent sprays onto the leaves of your majesty palm.
Related: Indoor Palms Safe for Cats
4. Shade
We’ve mentioned earlier that majesty palm plants can thrive indoors and outdoors. So, if you grow it outdoors, one would expect a nice amount of shade from a 100-foot palm tree, right?
Unfortunately, it’s hard to expect your majesty palm plant to grow as high as it grows in its natural habitat, especially if planted in a pot. There aren’t enough nutrients for that.
However, the plant’s leaves have a considerable horizontal spread. So, if you place them above your head, say on a balcony or a pergola, they can still provide a decent amount of shade while beautifying your garden.
5. Minimum Space Requirement
Majesty palm plants have slow growth rates, whether indoors or outdoors. It takes an entire year for this baby palm tree to grow only one foot.
Additionally, the growth rate slows down even further once the plant reaches six feet. This will allow you to keep the plant in the same place for years as it won’t occupy vertical space.
6. Design Backdrop
Photographers or those with an affinity for tropical themes can use majesty palm leaves as a fantastic backdrop. For instance, angle your camera to capture most of the palm leaves in one frame in front of a simple yet vibrant wall.
Adding other tropical elements, such as pineapples, flowers, and colorful props, can take the tropical theme up a notch.
In Summary
Majesty palms are always on the list of palm plants to get indoors. Not only do they have impressive foliages, but they also contribute more to your homes. These plants can help in purifying the air and decorating your home. You can also turn them into delicious jellies, and they’re ideal houseplants for those with pets.
Now that you know the majesty palm benefits, make sure to add them to your list of must-buy indoor plants!
Related: Parlor Palm Benefits
