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Sapindus saponaria
Also called Soapberry, Southern Soapberry, Wing Leaf Soapberry, Soaptree, Western Soapberry
A small to medium deciduous tree from the Americas (the maple family, Sapindaceae) that tolerates poor soil and drought. Its soapy fruit has long been used for washing.
Sapindus saponaria is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree native to the Americas. Common names include rocky mountain maple, wingleaf soapberry, western soapberry, jaboncillo, sulluku and manele and a'e (Hawaiian). Its genus name, Sapindus, comes from the Latin, meaning Indian soap, and its specific epithet means "soapy".
Western Soapberry is a member of the maple family of trees.
The fruit of Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii are poisonous and can cause skin rashes; they have been used to stupefy fish. The foliage may also be toxic to livestock.
This species has a very wide native range throughout the Americas, ranging from Kansas (with isolated populations known as far north as Montana, Colorado, and Missouri) east to Florida and the West Indies, and south to Paraguay. Populations are also known from isolated oceanic islands, including Clarion Island, the Galápagos Islands, and the Hawaiian Islands.
Western soapberry wood is very hard, heavy, elastic and close-grained -- properties that give the tree excellent resistance to the extreme winds of the southern Great Plains. For these reasons, the wood was highly esteemed by the indigenous Plains Apache people of Oklahoma, who used it make tent poles, bows and arrows, and tool handles. It was said that tent poles made from the branches of this wood would "last indefinitely", if seasoned.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Sapindus 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.
