# Western Soapberry (Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii)

> A tough tree of the southern Plains whose see-through golden berries lather like soap and hang on into winter, after yellow-gold fall color.

Also called wild China tree, wild chinaberry, Indian soap plant, jaboncillo, Sapindus drummondii. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/western-soapberry/

![Western soapberry (Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii) long pinnate leaves lit by autumn sun](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/western-soapberry-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Alice Wondrak-Biel, CC BY 2.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWesternSoapberry1_%286541133901%29.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Medium tree
- Mature height: 20 to 50 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 9
- Grows wild in: Stream banks, dry uplands, rocky ground, floodplain forests, old fields and edges
- Native range: 9 states, north to [Colorado](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CO), south to [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), east to [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR) and west to [Arizona](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AZ) ([Arizona](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AZ), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Colorado](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CO), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [New Mexico](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NM), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK) and [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX))
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Berries, September to February
- First crop: 8 years
- Mature spread: 30 ft
- Traits: Drought tolerant, Winter interest, Fall color, Wildlife value, Showy flowers, Street tree
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

Western soapberry is a deciduous tree of the southern Plains and the Southwest, with long leaves of 8 to 18 slender leaflets and gray bark that breaks into scaly plates. Its berries are rich in saponin and lather in water, and Native Americans and early settlers made soap from them. The dark brown seeds were strung into necklaces and used as buttons. It shrugs off wind, heat, poor soil and city air. Its scaly trunk and persistent fruit give it winter interest, and it can serve as a street tree. Grow it as a shade or patio tree on dry, windy ground, or let it sucker into a small grove.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Western soapberry grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. Expect a tree of 20 to 50 feet with a rounded crown 25 to 30 feet wide. It stays small in shallow soil and grows larger in deep soil.

Large clusters of creamy white flowers, up to 10 inches long, open in May and June. On female trees the berries, about half an inch across and see-through yellow, ripen in September and October. They turn black and hang on into late winter. Birds eat them, doves and songbirds nest in the crown, and the leaves feed the caterpillars of the soapberry hairstreak. The leaves turn yellow-gold in fall.

It grows wild from southwest Missouri and Kansas to Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, southern Colorado and northern Mexico. Look for it along streams, on dry limestone uplands and rocky hillsides, and at wood edges. NatureServe ranks it imperiled in Missouri and Colorado.

## How to grow Western Soapberry

Western soapberry takes full sun or part shade, in dry to average soil that drains well. It grows in clay, sand or rocky limestone ground, takes alkaline soil and stands long droughts once established. It can sucker into a grove on a good site, so give it room. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 25 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Soak the cleaned seed in cold water for five to seven days. Seed that swells can be sown three quarters of an inch deep, in fall or spring. Seed that stays small and hard needs hot water poured over it, then 60 to 90 days damp in the refrigerator before a spring sowing.

Water every week or two through the first summer, then only in a long drought. Seedlings put their first years into a strong taproot, so expect little top growth at first. Deer seldom browse it, but a tube keeps rabbits off the young stem. Pull or mow suckers where you want a single trunk.

Most trees are male or female, and only females bear the golden berries, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. Female trees bear heavy crops nearly every year. Powdery mildew, leaf blight and leaf spot may appear in some areas. In Texas the soapberry borer, a beetle from Mexico first reported there in 2003, has spread to about 50 counties. Infested trees die back from the top and may die within three years, and soapberries show little resistance. The berries are poisonous if eaten, causing nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii, Tirmenstein 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/sapsapd)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Sapindus chapter, Read and Zasada](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Sapindus.pdf)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Sapindus drummondii](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=286820)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Sapindus saponaria](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=286817)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=SASAD)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Sapindus drummondii](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/sapindus-drummondii/)
- [Texas A&M Forest Service, Trees of Texas: western soapberry](https://texastreeid.tfs.tamu.edu/content/TreeDetails/?id=116)
- [Texas A&M Forest Service: Soapberry Borer](https://tfsweb.tamu.edu/trees/invasive-species/invasive-insects/soapberry-borer/)
- [Texas A&M AgriLife, Texas Tree Selector: Western Soapberry](https://texastreeplanting.tamu.edu/Display_Onetree.aspx?tid=92)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online, International Dendrology Society: Sapindus drummondii](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/sapindus/sapindus-drummondii/)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: soapberry, Sapindus saponaria](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=570)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/SASAD)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.152416/Sapindus_saponaria_var_drummondii)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation: Missouri Species and Communities of Conservation Concern Checklist 2024](https://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/2024-03/SOCC%20Checklist%202024_ADA_0.pdf)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [How fast every tree and shrub we grow gets tall: growth rate, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/growth-rates/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)
- [Leaf litter, not wood chips, under the canopy](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/leaf-litter-not-wood-chips/index.html.md)

## Related

- Under its canopy: [Roughleaf Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/roughleaf-dogwood/index.html.md), [Gray Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/gray-dogwood/index.html.md) and [Downy Arrowwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/downy-arrowwood/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Western Soapberry, add ?species=western-soapberry with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 5, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=western-soapberry&zone=5&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Western Soapberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=western-soapberry): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=western-soapberry): whether Western Soapberry can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can lift it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Western Soapberry as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=western-soapberry (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Western Soapberry is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=western-soapberry (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Western Soapberry needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 3 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=western-soapberry:3
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Western Soapberry where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=western-soapberry&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Western Soapberry goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=western-soapberry&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Western Soapberry flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=western-soapberry