Unlike its gorgeously gaudy cousin, it is not so brightly colored, being less conspicuously gorgeous with white to pinkish blossoms. Also unlike its look-at-me cousin, its flowers are fragrant; Royal Catchfly is all looks, no smell. And while I'm at it, it's an introduced species, unlike native Royal Catchfly. And of course, being introduced from Europe, it has its way along roadside and in disturbed places, spreading by way of underground stems, forming sizeable colonies.
The flowers stretch to about an inch across, and most have five scalloped petals, though occasionally there are more. Like most of the rest of the family, each flower sits on a tube formed by the calyx.
And that's all just fascinating, huh? So why Bouncing Bet? Why Soapwort? Well that's easy to explain: saponin.
Saponin is a glucoside that scrubs away oils and fats and grease. As kind of a coincidental reminder of these cleansing properties, it makes suds when you bruise the leaves. Thus we get the common Soapwort, and the generic Saponaria.
And Bouncing Bet? That's just an old Old World name for a washerwoman.
Bouncing Bet was once used as a cleansing agent by guys called fullers; they increased the bulk and weight of garments by beating it and shrinking it and pressing it. Many, many years ago brewers also used it to make the froth frothier that spilled over the flagon.
Writing in 1633, the famed herbalist Gerard had this to say of Bouncing Bet: "It is commonly called Saponaria, of the great scouring qualitie that the leaves have: for they yield out of themselves a certain juyce when they are bruised, which scoureth almost as well as sope." (Can you imagine talking that way? Scoureth?)
It has also seen its medicinal uses. It was used topically, to scrub at poison ivy rashes and dermatitis and other such skin conditions. It was also used to treat jaundice, gonorrhea, and syphilis.
Of course saponin is poisonous, so the cure is worse than the disease. Maybe you can get away with applying it to your willie, but ingesting it is a big no-no.
Bouncing Bet is truly ubiquitous, found throughout Canada and the United States, though in the west that means mostly the Pacific Northwest, and it's one of the summer's treats.
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Gregg Pasterick's North American Wildflowers topic, please visit the Discussions page.