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Quillaja saponaria
Also called Murillo's Bark, Quillaja, Soapbarktree, Soapbush, Soaptree
Soapbark (Quillaja saponaria) is an evergreen tree from central Chile, grown mainly for its saponin-rich bark, which forms a soapy lather with water. It is drought tolerant and best suited to warm, dry, free-draining sites.
Quillaja saponaria, the soap bark tree or soapbark, is an evergreen tree in the family Quillajaceae, native to warm temperate central Chile. In Chile it occurs from 32 to 40° South Latitude approximately and at up to 2000 m (6500 ft) above sea level. It can grow to 15–20 m (50–65 ft) in height. The tree has thick, dark bark; smooth, leathery, shiny, oval evergreen leaves 3–5 cm long; white star-shaped flowers 15 mm in diameter borne in dense corymbs; and a dry fruit with five follicles each containing 10–20 seeds. The tree has several practical and commercial uses.
This tree occurs at elevations up to 2000 metres. The species is drought resistant, and tolerates about −12 °C (10 °F) in its natural habitat. Examples of specific occurrences are in central Chile in the forests of La Campana National Park and Cerro La Campana, in which locales it is associated with the Chilean wine palm, Jubaea chilensis. It is often used for reforestation on arid soils.
The wood is used in cabinetry, and scents derived from the tree are used in perfumes and cosmetics. The inner bark of Quillaja saponaria can be reduced to powder and employed as a substitute for soap, since it forms a lather with water, owing to the presence of a glycoside saponin, sometimes distinguished as quillaia saponin. The same, or a closely similar substance, is found in soapwort (Saponaria officinalis), in senega root (Polygala senega) and in sarsaparilla; it appears to be chemically related to digitonin, which occurs in digitalis.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Quillaja saponaria by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
