Tonight when I went out to dump the recycling and garbage there was an explosion of Wavy-leafed Soap Plant in my front yard. Our front yard is mostly a California native plant garden. The Soap Plant was planted several years ago and has been getting progressively better each year. Tonight it just exploded. There are many flowers in bloom on the four to six-foot stems. Wavy-leafed soap plant only open in the late afternoon or evening, remaining open during the night but closing by the morning. Each flower only blooms for one day, but there are many buds on each stem. Pollination is by evening or night-flying insects. Wavy-leafed soap plant is a bulb that typically grows on rock bluffs, grasslands, chaparral, and in open woodlands. The fibers surrounding the bulb were widely used, bound together, to make small brushes. Extracts of the bulbs could also be used as a sealant or glue.
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | May 19, 2013
Natural History Wanderings 
A couple of days before your “explosion,” a friend from Montclair had
shared her exciting news to me: ” I have a white front yard full of soap
plant!” They never bloomed before…. something in the air?
Maybe most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen was a “white cloud ” for about a mile along the feather River canyon: almost ran into the river. Finally could pull aside, and how exciting to see it was soap plant.
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By: Judy kEENE on May 20, 2013
at 10:13 AM