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Sapindus saponaria; photograph (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-27

Sapindus saponaria L.

Wingleaf soapberry; Soap tree; Soapberry; Southern soapberry

Sapindaceae · Cook Is., Marquesas +44

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Sapindus saponaria, photograph (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY)Sapindus saponaria, photograph (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY)Sapindus saponaria, photograph (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY)Sapindus saponaria, photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sapindus saponaria, photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sapindus saponaria, photograph (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY) 91 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.6°C
Record low 9.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,355mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Sapindus saponaria is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree native to the Americas. Common names include rocky mountain maple, wingleaf soapberry, western soapberry, jaboncillo, sulluku and manele and a'e (Hawaiian). Its genus name, Sapindus, comes from the Latin, meaning Indian soap, and its specific epithet means "soapy".

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sapindus saponaria", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Sapindus

Sapindus is a genus of about thirteen species of shrubs and small trees in the maple and lychee family, Sapindaceae and tribe Sapindeae. It is native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the world. The genus includes both deciduous and evergreen species. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sapindus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (955 mm of 1,262 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.7 °C against a yearly mean of 24.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

1,262 mm in the median year at the habitat, 955 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 199 mm, driest month February at 39 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 805 mm to 2,548 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,355 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,262 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.6 °C, the absolute minimum 9.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 9.9 °C to 23.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.5 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +267 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Sapindus saponaria through the yearWarmest month May, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 18.2 °C; 1,262 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°40°38.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 26–40RH 59–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 540 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 20–3127 / 22–3228 / 23–3329 / 24–3330 / 24–3429 / 23–3329 / 23–3329 / 24–3329 / 23–3228 / 23–3027 / 22–3026 / 21–30
Night °C18 / 10–2319 / 11–2419 / 12–2420 / 14–2422 / 15–2522 / 15–2522 / 15–2522 / 15–2522 / 15–2521 / 15–2420 / 13–2319 / 11–23
Rain mm42 / 11–14439 / 10–13543 / 7–16559 / 10–20595 / 27–245172 / 45–317169 / 46–333180 / 42–353199 / 75–393140 / 54–30873 / 18–22551 / 12–178
DLI27 / 23–3632 / 27–3936 / 32–4239 / 30–4740 / 27–4536 / 25–4237 / 27–4236 / 30–4133 / 29–3730 / 27–3628 / 24–3526 / 21–34
RH %61 / 53–6760 / 52–6759 / 53–6760 / 52–6862 / 54–6864 / 59–6964 / 58–6965 / 58–7066 / 59–7065 / 59–7063 / 57–6962 / 56–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 540 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (786 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1435:1699 (18.225, -95.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 540 distinct grid cells holding 786 of the 789 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1435:1699 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.00_-95.000, lapse-corrected +267 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 384 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCook Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Florida, Georgia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay · introduced: Tunisia, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Cameroon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Comoros, Mauritius, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Lesser Sunda Is., Philippines, New Guinea, Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Vanuatu, Venezuelan Antilles, Galápagos · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker19.29, -96.511 · in the densest population, 358 records (26% of those in range)
Extinct inHawaii · recorded as extinct by WCVP: history, not habitat; no records are tested against these regions
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1381 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 786 of them in the land cells it reads, of 789 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1131 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 120 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 592 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1381 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Sapindus saponaria, photograph 1did not loadSapindus saponaria, photograph 2did not loadSapindus saponaria, photograph 3did not loadSapindus saponaria, photograph 4did not loadSapindus saponaria, photograph 5did not loadSapindus saponaria, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Euphorbia lasiocarpa Euphorbia lasiocarpa Roadside sandmat Photo: CC BY, Dalton WattCascabela thevetia Cascabela thevetia Be-still tree Photo: CC BY, AjayCissampelos pareira Cissampelos pareira Velvetleaf Photo: CC BY, Pablo H CapovillaPiper amalago Piper amalago Wall Purslane Photo: CC BY, avocatAmphilophium paniculatum Amphilophium paniculatum Liana de cuello Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciMesosphaerum pectinatum Mesosphaerum pectinatum Comb bushmint Photo: CC BY, Matteo Bellucci

Other Sapindus 9 in the reference

Sapindus delavayi Sapindus delavayi Sapindaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Zhangmoon618Sapindus drummondii Sapindus drummondii Sapindaceae Photo: CC BY, Alex AbairSapindus emarginatus Sapindus emarginatus Sapindaceae Photo: CC BY, Raja Sekhar ChimiralaSapindus marginatus Sapindus marginatus Sapindaceae Photo: Public domain, author not statedSapindus mukorossi Sapindus mukorossi Chinese soapberry Photo: CC BY, 謝麗霦Sapindus oahuensis Sapindus oahuensis Sapindaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSapindus rarak Sapindus rarak Sapindaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Raffi Kojian Sapindus thurstonii Sapindaceae Sapindus trifoliatus Sapindus trifoliatus Threeleaf soapberry Photo: CC BY, renjus box

Names & registers

Also known as Cupania saponarioides; Sapindus acuminatus; Sapindus alatus; Sapindus amolli; Sapindus divaricatus and 21 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Sapindus balicus; Sapindus marginatus; Sapindus thurstonii; Sapindus vitiensis: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Sapindaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Cook Is., Marquesas, Society Is. +43
Wild records
1381 in range · 1131 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 35 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (28 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.00_-95.000, lapse-corrected +267 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its POWO identifier 30035906-2 is Kew's for Sapindus saponaria L.
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 272 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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