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Sapindus trifoliatus
Also called South Indian Soapnut, Three Leaf Soapberry, South India Soapnut
Threeleaf soapberry is an evergreen tree from the Indian subcontinent and Myanmar that can reach about 25 m, grown mainly for its soapy seeds used to wash fabrics. It needs a warm, seasonally dry tropical climate with a clear wet and dry cycle.
Sapindus trifoliatus, the South India soapnut or three-leaf soapberry, is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae, native to Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, the Andaman Islands, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, and introduced to eastern tropical Africa, Rodrigues, and Trinidad and Tobago. An evergreen tree reaching 25 m (82 ft), its seeds are rich in saponins, and are both collected in the wild and cultivated to make soap for washing fabrics.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Sapindus trifoliatus 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.
