Santa Teresa Park Soaproots Blooming, 6/11/21 by Ronald Horii
It's early June, which is soaproot time. Wavyleaf soaproots, or soap plants, Chlorogalum pomeridianum, bloom in late spring/early summer. There are lots of them all over the hills of Santa Teresa County Park in San Jose. They are different from other flowers in that they are night bloomers. They start to bloom late in the afternoon, stay open at night, and shrivel up in the morning. You won't see any flowers in the middle of the day. They start popping open around 5-6 pm. The flowers are pollinated by large bees, like bumblebees, in the day and sphinx moths at night. Each flower stays open for one night only, but each plant has lots of flowers, and they don't bloom all at once. The plants have many flower buds along the stems, with oldest ones closest to the main stem blooming first, and the ones at the end of the stem blooming last. So each plant can have blooms over many successive nights. These are common native plants found all over California, except for the deserts, and in southwestern Oregon. Indigenous people used them for many purposes. See the links.
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More information about soaproots:
https://www.calflora.org/app/taxon?crn=2003
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https://calscape.org/loc-California/Chlorogalum%20pomeridianum%20(Soap%20Plant)?newsearch=1
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorogalum_pomeridianum
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https://friendsofedgewood.org/soap-plant
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https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/chlorogalum_pomeridianum.shtml
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https://baynature.org/article/versatile-bulb-many-uses-soaproot/
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https://www.sutrostewards.org/post/2017/11/30/soaproot-a-multi-use-marvel
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Santa Teresa County Park information and maps: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Pages/SantaTeresa.aspx
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More of my pictures of Santa Teresa County Park: http://www.rhorii.com/#santateresa
It's early June, which is soaproot time. Wavyleaf soaproots, or soap plants, Chlorogalum pomeridianum, bloom in late spring/early summer. There are lots of them all over the hills of Santa Teresa County Park in San Jose. They are different from other flowers in that they are night bloomers. They start to bloom late in the afternoon, stay open at night, and shrivel up in the morning. You won't see any flowers in the middle of the day. They start popping open around 5-6 pm. The flowers are pollinated by large bees, like bumblebees, in the day and sphinx moths at night. Each flower stays open for one night only, but each plant has lots of flowers, and they don't bloom all at once. The plants have many flower buds along the stems, with oldest ones closest to the main stem blooming first, and the ones at the end of the stem blooming last. So each plant can have blooms over many successive nights. These are common native plants found all over California, except for the deserts, and in southwestern Oregon. Indigenous people used them for many purposes. See the links.
-------------------------
More information about soaproots:
https://www.calflora.org/app/taxon?crn=2003
-------------------------
https://calscape.org/loc-California/Chlorogalum%20pomeridianum%20(Soap%20Plant)?newsearch=1
-------------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorogalum_pomeridianum
-------------------------
https://friendsofedgewood.org/soap-plant
-------------------------
https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/chlorogalum_pomeridianum.shtml
-------------------------
https://baynature.org/article/versatile-bulb-many-uses-soaproot/
-------------------------
https://www.sutrostewards.org/post/2017/11/30/soaproot-a-multi-use-marvel
-------------------------
Santa Teresa County Park information and maps: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Pages/SantaTeresa.aspx
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More of my pictures of Santa Teresa County Park: http://www.rhorii.com/#santateresa
