Soap Plant

Soap Plant
Related Category: Plants
any of various plants having cleansing properties. A few are of commercial importance, but most soap plants are used locally, as in early times, for toilet and laundry purposes.

Soap Plant - Tree-like succulent 6-20' tall w/rigid lvs and white flowers in spring-summer. Full sun. Drought tolerant. Hardy to 15-20 degrees F.
Yucca elephantipes ...

Wavyleaf Soap Plant [English]: Chlorogalum pomeridianum
Wavyleaf Soap Plant [English]: Chlorogalum pomeridianum var. divaricatum
Wavyleaf Soap Plant [English]: Chlorogalum pomeridianum var. minus ...

Shaped like an open cup, it is made of grasses and bark strips held together with insect silk, and lined with soap plant or grass. The outside is sometimes decorated with lichen to camouflage it.

Sweetsummer's blossom spikes were a traditional soap-substitute in New England, called Fisherman's Soap Plant, Poor Man's Soap, or Soap Bush.

See also: Fruits, Soapwort, Pinks, Grass, Bouncing Bet