London, Jan 22 (IANS): If you love having plants at home, then there is a good news for you as a new study suggests that plants at home can keep you mentally healthy.

The findings, published in the journal Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, indicated that having plants at home had a positive influence on the psychological well-being of the dwelling's inhabitants during Covid-19 lockdown.

For the study, the researchers, including Katia Perini from the University of Genoa in Italy, evaluated the role played by the plants at home during the first Covid-19 lockdown and the study involved 4,200 respondents.

The situation between the months of March and June deprived the public of the chance to enjoy open spaces and nature, and forced them to spend extended periods of time indoors.

The team found 74 per cent of the respondents agreed that having plants at home had a positive influence on emotional well-being during lockdown, the researchers said.

In fact, more than half of them (55.8 per cent) stated that they would have preferred to have more plants in their house during that difficult period. The frequency with which study participants experienced negative emotions was higher in those who stated they had no indoor plants.

Those living in small or poorly lit dwellings and those who did not visit green spaces frequently before lockdown also experienced more negative emotions, it added.

Moreover, just over half of respondents (52 per cent) reported spending more time on plant care at home during lockdown and almost two thirds (62.5 per cent) expressed a desire to do so once normality was restored.

As a result, 40 per cent of the participants indicated that they were motivated to have more plants at home in future, the researchers said.