I doubt that the snake have any comprehension if a plant is real or not... and planting live plants depends on the species. A 2kg royal will trash most plants unless they are trees !

 

One of my corns trashes all the plants anyways haha. He gets his head so deep in the soil and then knocks the whole plant over, spills dirt everywhere.

 

I tried to add live plants in several of the ball python enclosures... It didn't go down well, the snakes kept destroying them. So unfortunately I had to replace them with fake plants, they still destroy what I do but at least the fake plants can be put back up.

I have read that live plants are better as they produce oxygen, but other then that I don't think the snake would notice the difference.

Yes plants can get mold And mildew over time so you would need to wipe the plants every now and then, unless you have a bio-active enclosure in which the insects might do the cleaning for you...

I have several bio-active enclosures for crested geckos (very humid), some have been going for 2 years and I've noticed mold, which I try to clean off and mildew has just started to show on some of the plants. I've read that both won't harm reptiles, but it still doesn't look nice and I'm sure the reptiles are happier without it.

 

Go bioactive! Plant into the substrate, use leaf litter, throw in isopods and springtails to recycle poop/nutrients and to control mould. This kukri snake is a tropical burrower, and her plants are still doing ok. The oak-leaved climbing ficus is struggling a bit, but the brake fern and philodendron micans are growing like weeds.

 

That does look amazing! I shall have to begin to research on it!