Formaldehyde is a major indoor air pollutant. Formaldehyde removal from indoor air conduces to decrease the health risk for urban inhabitants. In this study, a dynamic chamber technique was employed to investigate formaldehyde removal by potted spider plant (Chlorphytum comosum), aloe (Aloe vera) and golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum) with potted soils. The results showed that the potted plant-soil systems could remove formaldehyde from air in a long time. The spider plant-soil system had the highest formaldehyde removal capacity compared with others. Higher metabolisms in plants and microorganisms in daytime may give a reasonable explanation for higher formaldehyde removal capacities for plant-soil systems in daytime. The order of formaldehyde removal capacity for the three plant species agreed well with the sequence of formaldehyde dehydrogenase activities from plant leaves. Formaldehyde removal by plant may be diffusion-limited rather than reaction-limited since the detached formaldehyde dehydrogenase activities from the leaves of the three plant species were higher than in vivo metabolic capacities. Formaldehyde in air can be largely absorbed and metabolized by the microorganisms in the potted soils indicating that further elevating formaldehyde removal capacity for plant-soil system will be realized by increasing exposed surface of potted soil. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.