Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

SOAPBERRY

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Sapindus saponaria L.

[=Sapindus drummondii Hook. & Arn.]

Riley County, Kansas

Height: To 40 feet

Family: Sapindaceae - Soapberry Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July

Also Called:

Chinaberry.

Trunks:

Erect; bark grayish brown, fissures shallow, ridges short, sometimes thin plates; wood yellowish brown, hard.

Twigs:

Grayish brown, brittle, pubescent; leaf scars crescent-shaped to half-round; buds brown, ovoid, .08 to .1 inch, apex obtuse, scales sparsely to densely pubescent.

Leaves:

Deciduous, alternate, even-pinnately compound, 8 to 14 inches long; petiole 1.6 to 2 inches, glabrate or minutely pubescent to pubescent; leaflets (8-)12-20, alternate, elliptic-lanceolate to lanceolate, sickle-shaped, 1.6 to 3.6 inches long, .8 to 1.2 inch wide, base rounded to truncate, asymmetric, margins entire, apex acuminate, lower surface green, minutely pubescent to pubescent along main veins, upper surface green, glabrous or main vein sometimes minutely pubescent to pubescent.

Flowers:

Inflorescences terminal on new growth, panicles, 10-50-flowered, pyramidal, 6 to 8 inches long, 6 to 8 inches wide; peduncles .8 to 2.8 inches long, densely covered with minute pubescence. Flowers unisexual, radially symmetric; sepals (4-)5, connate basally, lobes yellowish green, broadly ovate, .04 to .08 inch; petals (4-)5, distinct, white, .1 to .16 inch; staminate: stamens (7-)8-10, .16 to .2 inch; pistillate: pistil 1; style 1; stigma shallowly 3-lobed.

Fruit:

September-October; berries, yellowish, translucent, spherical, .5 to .6 inch diameter, usually becoming wrinkled; seed 1, black, obovoid, .3 to .35 inch long, .25 to .3 inch wide, somewhat glossy, minutely pitted.

Habitat:

Stream banks, rocky slopes, woodlands, prairie ravines, waste places.

Distribution:

Scattered throughout Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Soapberry often forms thickets or colonies by root-suckers. The plants contain saponin, and the ground flesh of the fruits has been used as a soap substitute. Handling of the fruits can cause skin irritation.

Soapberry inflorescence