New York|That Laundry-Fresh Scent of Wild Soapwort
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By Dave Taft
Just as the first truly hot summer days seem to warp the city’s hard-edge structures, a few blessed flowers emerge to make the evenings worth waiting for. Some, like linden, are native; others, like honeysuckle, are not. For some unknown reason, almost all are better known than soapwort.
Despite soapwort’s simple beauty, it is often overlooked. To begin with, most New Yorkers — in fact, most people — ignore the dry, forgotten fields this plant favors. The plant has no trouble growing in soils that are little more than urban rubble. But in better soil, where a field is just beginning to succeed from grassy to shrubby, the plant can emerge as a thing of beauty. What soapwort seems to want most is full sun, and when soapwort is happy, it is very, very happy indeed, spreading with abandon.
This drive to colonize does not ingratiate the plant to native wildflower fans. Saponaria officinalis is native to Eurasia, but it has done very well for itself in North America. Not one of the five boroughs is without examples, and it can be found growing throughout the continental United States and much of Canada.
Still, it is hard to hate a plant that smells as good as soapwort.
Soapwort shares the classic characteristics of all moth-pollinated flowers. For one, the flower’s petals meet to form a long tube that prevents any but long-tongued pollinators from drinking the sweet nectar pooled at its base. The flowers are white — sometimes with just the slightest hint of pink — and grow in lovely little bouquets, which gleam like beacons at sunset. Though the flowers are somewhat fragrant throughout the day, Saponaria pulls out the stops at dusk. On warm evenings when the air is still, the fragrant plants attract both humans and moths, and checking trailside soapworts for visiting moth pollinators can be great summer fun for those looking for an alternative to watching fireflies.
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