- Chlorogalum angustifolium
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Chlorogalum angustifolium Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae clade: Angiosperms clade: Monocots Order: Asparagales Family: Asparagaceae Subfamily: Agavoideae Genus: Chlorogalum Species: C. angustifolium Binomial name Chlorogalum angustifolium
KelloggChlorogalum angustifolium is a species of flowering plant, known by the common name narrowleaf soap plant. It is native to the Sierra Nevada foothills and inner North Coast Ranges of California, and the mountains of southern Oregon, where it grows in heavy, rocky soils in woodland and on grassy hillsides. This is a perennial wildflower growing from a fibrous bulb a few centimeters wide. It has narrow basal leaves only a few millimeters wide.
The inflorescence may be up to 70 centimeters long and is composed of several ephemeral flowers which open in the evening and close by the following morning. Each has six tepals about a centimeter long which are white with yellow-green midveins. There are six stamens tipped with large yellow anthers. The fruit is a capsule 1 to 3 millimeters long. The Karuk of northern California used the soapy juice from the crushed bulbs of this plant as a detergent for washing clothes.[1]
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