Soap Plant

Common Soaproot, Wavyleaf Soap Plant, Amole
Chlorogalum pomeridianum var. pomeridianum
NATIVE

Description (Jepson, PlantID.net)

• Monocotyledon
  • Monocots are a major lineage of flowering plants; see family for general characteristics
• Agave Family (Agavaceae)
• Perennial herb
  • Grows from a bulb (short underground stem with fleshy leaves, e.g. onion)
• Leaves
  • Arranged in a basal rosette
  • Long and narrow (1 in. wide and ≤ 20 in. long)
  • Usually wavy-edged
• Flowers
  • Inflorescence (flower arrangement) is a single, tall panicle (branching stem with flowers opening from the bottom up)
  • White, fragrant flowers
  • Narrow, recurved “petals” are actually 3 petals and 3 sepals (outer flower parts) in 2 separate whorls, similar in appearance and collectively called tepals
  • Long, yellow-tipped stamens (male flower parts)
    • When flower first opens, anthers are reddish brown before quickly splitting open to reveal the yellow pollen
  • Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts)
• Height to ~8 ft.

Distribution

• Native to California
  • Grows in a variety of habitats, including in annual grasslands, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, oak woodlands, low-elevation conifer forests, and mixed-evergreen forests
  • See Calflora for statewide observations of this plant
• Of the 3 recognized varieties, this variety grows only slightly beyond California borders into southwestern Oregon; other 2 varieties only grow in California
• Grows at elevations to 4,900 ft.

Uses (San Mateo County Parks prohibits removal of any natural material)

• Wildlife
  • Deer will eat the emerging tender leaves in early spring; look for clipped leaf tips
• Native people
  • Food
    • Before flowering, young shoots were harvested, roasted, and eaten
    • Bulbs were boiled or roasted to remove soapy taste, then eaten like a potato
  • Medicine
    • Fresh bulb was rubbed on the body for cramps and for rheumatism
    • Decoction of the bulb used as a diuretic and purgative
  • Other uses
    • Bulbs used for fishing
      • Crushed bulbs were mixed with water to create suds, then thrown in slow-moving creeks or pools to stun fish, aiding in their capture
      • Soap-like saponins in the bulbs enter through the gills and interfere with oxygen absorption and transport (Rosenthal 2014)
      • Roots of California manroot (Marah fabacea) and the fruits of California buckeye (Aesculus californica) and common snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus var. laevigatus) were similarly used for fishing
    • Crushed stems and bulbs were mixed with water to create shampoo and soap
    • Fibers around bulb were made into brushes
    • Cooked and mashed bulbs created a glue used by Pomo for brooms and arrows (National Park Service 2015)
    • Leaves used by Sierra Miwok to make dolls
    • Leaf tips used by Pomo to prick tattoos (National Park Service 2015)

Name Derivation

• Chlorogalum (klor-OG-al-um) – from the Greek for “green milk” or “juice”
• pomeridianum (pom-er-id-ee-AY-num) – from the Latin for “of the afternoon” (post-meridian), because flowers open in the afternoon

Notes

• Flowers pop open in the late afternoon; watch closely and you can see it happen!
  • Flowers open a few at a time along each branching stem
  • Each flower remains open all night, after which the flower wilts and dries, leaving a twisted remnant the next day
• Pollinated during the afternoon by large bees (honey bees, carpenter bees, and 2 species of bumblebee) and, after dark, by sphingid moths
• Geophytes (e.g. plants growing from bulbs, corms, rhizomes, or enlarged taproots) are well adapted to survive fire, our Mediterranean climate’s long, dry summers, and extended droughts
  • Above-ground growth dies back after flowering, while underground the plant survives with stored water and nutrients
• Watch for fibrous bulbs sticking out from eroded trails and banks
  • Soap plant has contractile roots that pull the bulb deeper underground throughout the plant’s life
  • Thus the bulb becomes increasingly protected from fire as the plant ages
• Takes 5-7 years before producing its first flowers
• Native people actively managed soap plant and other edible geophytes (Anderson 2005)
  • Hardwood sticks were used for digging
  • Some plants were spared to allow future crops
  • Bulblets were dispersed and replanted
  • Areas were burned to decrease competition and recycle nutrients
• Edgewood’s soap plant is classified as a variety
  • Variety indicates a population with small morphological variations, e.g. color, seen throughout the geographic range of the species; interbreeding is possible
  • Subspecies indicates a geographically-separated population with distinct morphological characteristics; when not isolated, interbreeding is possible
  • In practice, botanists have not consistently applied these ranks

ID Tips

• May be confused with common star lily (Toxicoscordion fremontii)
  • Soap plant
    • Has wavy leaves, matte on upper surface, blue-green in maturity
    • Whorl of leaves is not strongly triangulate at the base
    • Flowers in late spring/early summer
  • Common star lily
    • Has straight-edged, shiny, bright yellow-green leaves
    • Whorl of leaves has a strongly triangulate base (you can feel it!)
    • Flowers in early spring

At Edgewood

• Found in all habitats, including serpentine grasslands
  • See iNaturalist for observations of Chlorogalum pomeridianum
• Flowers May – June

Specific References

Anderson, M.K. 2005. Tending the Wild. University of California, Berkeley.

Anderson, M.K., and W. Roderick. 2006. Soaproot Chlorogalum pomeridianum (D.C.) Kunth. Plant Guide. United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Plant Data Center c/o Plant Science Department, University of California, Davis, California.

Fryer, J.L. 2015. (Revised from Reeves, S.L. 2006.) Chlorogalum pomeridianum. Fire Effects Information System. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.

National Park Service. 2015. Soap plant. Presidio of San Francisco California.

Rosenthal, S. 2014, Jan. 13. The many uses of spring-blooming soaproot. Bay Nature.

van Doorn, W.G., and U. van Meeteren. 2003, Aug. 1. Flower opening and closure: A review. Journal of Experimental Botany 54: 1801-1812. Oxford Academic.

General References

Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.

Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.

Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.

Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.

Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.

Dave’s Garden.

Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.

Flora of North America. efloras.org.

Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.

Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

Native American Ethnobotany DB.

Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.