Bouncing Bet, Soapwort

Caryophyllaceae

LIFE FORM: Perennial

NATIVITY: Europe

VEGETATIVE CHARACTERISTICS:

This plant grows to about 2 feet tall; opposite leaves are dull green, with prominent veins; spreads aggressively to form large clumps.

FLOWERS:

Pink to rose colored flowers are over an inch wide; very showy when in bloom; mutant individuals with double corollas are common.

FRUIT/DISPERSAL AGENTS:

Spreads readily by seed as well as from vigorous rhizomes which lead to the formation of large clumps.

ECOLOGICAL PREFERENCE:

Prefers dry soil and full sun; common along highways and railroad lines; neglected residential and commercial landscapes; vacant lots and rubble dump sites; unmowed highway banks and median strips with frequent salt applications; railroad tracks with ballast substrate.

ENVIRONMENTAL FUNCTION:

Disturbance-adapted colonizer.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:

The common name of this plant is due to the fact the leaves, when bruised and moistened will produce a soapy lather; used in traditional European medicine. Included by Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in his five volume herbal, De Materia Medica, which was written in the first century AD and remained in active use into the 1600s.