Nature Bulletin No 492   May 4, 1957
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Daniel Ryan, President
Roberts Mann, Conservation Editor
David H. Thompson, Senior Naturalist

****:BOUNCING BET OR SOAPWORT

An old abandoned farm house, hidden away from busy towns and 
highways, always seems haunted by the ghosts of the family it once 
sheltered. Long after the house has fallen into ruin and its people are 
forgotten, such an overgrown homesite still may be haunted by ghosts 
of the woman's flower garden. A tangled thicket may hide dead or 
dying remnants of her lilac bush, her yellow or cabbage roses, mock 
orange, trumpet creeper or other old-fashioned shrubs and vines. A few 
spindly hollyhocks, sunflowers, morning glories, day lilies or phlox 
may push up through the matted grass year after year. Very often. 
however, among these pathetic survivors is a large knee-high patch of 
thrifty Bouncing Bet, a plant too full of vigor to require the pampering 
care of a gardener .

The Bouncing Bet, a relative of pinks and carnations, bears inch-broad, 
spicy-smelling flowers from July until September. The five scalloped 
petals are joined to form a tube and this in turn is enclosed by the green 
calyx tube. Some have double flowers. Pink or lavender when grown in 
the sun, the blossoms are nearly white in shade. It attracts few insects 
except the hawk moth which comes at dusk to sip nectar with its long 
tongue.

The rather pale green leaves are arranged in pairs, with the bases of 
each pair united to clasp the smooth stout stem. It multiplies either by 
seed or by creeping rootstocks which can produce a large patch 
spreading from a single plant. Although seldom planted or cultivated 
any more. Bouncing Bet became naturalized long ago and now grows 
wild over most of eastern North America and in places on the Pacific 
Coast. Throughout Illinois it is common on roadsides, ditch banks, in 
fallow fields and along railroads.

It is a question whether Bouncing Bet was prized most as an ornamental 
flower, as a substitute for soap, or as a source of drugs. The colonists 
brought it to this country from England where it had been grown for 
centuries under many different names -- Soapwort, Scourwort, Fuller's 
Herb, Hedge Pink, and Maid's pink, Wild Sweet William, Sweet Betty, 
and Lady-at-the-Gate. The first three refer to its use for washing. The 
leaves, stems and roots, when bruised, release a mucilaginous juice and 
a substance called saponin which produces a suds in water. It was used 
to launder delicate fabrics and in making fine soaps. Generations of 
farmers' wives have hurriedly dug Bouncing Bet roots, pounded them 
on a board and soused them in the water, when they ran out of soap on 
wash day.

All parts of the plant and especially the seeds are somewhat poisonous 
to grazing animals, causing irritation of the digestive tract, dizziness, 
depressed breathing, and even death by destroying the red blood cells. 
Fortunately, it is avoided by livestock. It is very poisonous to some 
people. Like so many other poisonous plants, Bouncing Bet is also 
listed as a drug plant. In early times there was a widespread belief in its 
medicinal virtues. It was supposed to cure the itch and chronic 
infections.

Two troublesome European weeds, the Cow Cockle and the Corn 
Cockle which infest our American wheat fields, are near relatives of the 
Bouncing Bet. Both also contain the same poisonous substances and 
have the property of producing a lather in water. In various parts of the 
world, other plants have been used as soap substitutes -- Soapberry, 
Soapbark Tree, Soap Nut, Soap Pod and Soap Orange.

Did Betty bounce and, if so, why?