Species
+

Quillaja saponaria Molina

Arbol de jabón, Murillo's-bark, Quillay [Chile], quillaja

Climate known 68 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Quillaja saponaria, the soap bark tree or soapbark, is an evergreen tree in the family Quillajaceae, native to warm temperate central Chile. In Chile it occurs from 32 to 40° South Latitude approximately and at up to 2000 m (6500 ft) above sea level. It can grow to 15–20 m (50–65 ft) in height. The tree has thick, dark bark; smooth, leathery, shiny, oval evergreen leaves 3–5 cm long; white star-shaped flowers 15 mm in diameter borne in dense corymbs; and a dry fruit with five follicles each containing 10–20 seeds. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Quillaja saponaria”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Quillaja

Quillaja is a genus of flowering plants, the only extant genus in the family Quillajaceae with two or three known species. It was once thought to be in the rose family, Rosaceae, but recent research shows it belongs in its own family. The inner bark of the soap bark tree contains saponin, which is a natural soap. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Quillaja”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Quillajaceae
Described by
Molina
Native to
Chile Central
Wild records
1653 in range· 602 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jan, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
695mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jun 160 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–57DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to February in the northern hemisphere (May to August at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 695 mm a year, wettest June at 160 mm, driest January at 3 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 57 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Leucoxyla saponaria (Molina) Rojas Acosta; Quillaja molinae DC.; Quillaja molinae Ser.; Quillaja poeppigii Walp.; Quillaja smegmadermis St.-Lag. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to February in the northern hemisphere (May to August at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (557 mm of 695 mm) falls in May to August, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.6 °C against a yearly mean of 13.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to February.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 695 mm a year, wettest June at 160 mm, driest January at 3 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

695 mm a year at the habitat, 557 mm of it May to August. Wettest month June at 160 mm, driest January at 3 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 401 mm to 1699 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 57 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 57 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 58).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 1.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.7 °C, the absolute minimum -4.5 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 0.2 °C to 7.0 °C), warmest day 26.3 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 14 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Jan; mean night from 4 °C in Jul to 14 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 695 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 595 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–57RH 53–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 595 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 21–2926 / 21–2924 / 20–2721 / 17–2317 / 14–1915 / 11–1714 / 10–1615 / 11–1717 / 13–1920 / 15–2222 / 17–2525 / 19–28
Night °C14 / 11–1614 / 11–1613 / 10–1510 / 7–127 / 4–105 / 1–84 / 0–75 / 1–86 / 2–98 / 4–1011 / 7–1213 / 10–15
Rain mm3 / 1–223 / 2–2811 / 6–4833 / 15–108131 / 71–297160 / 86–366157 / 99–308109 / 63–25250 / 27–13422 / 12–9112 / 7–534 / 2–31
DLI56 / 55–5750 / 48–5140 / 37–4229 / 25–3119 / 15–2215 / 12–1817 / 14–2023 / 19–2632 / 29–3543 / 39–4552 / 50–5357 / 54–58
RH %53 / 51–6154 / 51–6156 / 51–6257 / 50–6359 / 50–6660 / 50–6759 / 50–6660 / 51–6560 / 53–6458 / 55–6356 / 53–6154 / 51–61

Each figure is the median across the 595 grid cells holding the 1641 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2461:2181 (-33.075, -70.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 595 distinct grid cells holding the 1641 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2461:2181 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -33.00_-70.625, lapse-corrected -717 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 717 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChile Central· introduced: Bolivia
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.38, -70.908 · in the densest population, 1242 records (75% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1653 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 602 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 11 km away. 25 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1653 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Quillaja saponariaQuillaja saponariaQuillaja saponariaQuillaja saponariaQuillaja saponariaQuillaja saponariaQuillaja saponariaQuillaja saponaria

Photographs: (c) Patricio Novoa, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Nicolás Villaseca Merino, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Cesar Ormazabal, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Quillaja saponaria, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Separation and characterization of saponins with adjuvant activity from Quillaja saponaria Molina cortex
Charlotte R. Kensil, Urmila H. Patel, Michael Lennick, Dante J. Marciani (1991) · The Journal of Immunology
Saponins as vaccine adjuvants.
Kensil Cr (1996) · PubMed
Saponin adjuvant enhancement of antigen-specific immune responses to an experimental HIV-1 vaccine
Jiayan Wu, B H Gardner, Cheryl I. Murphy, Jonathan R. Seals (1992) · The Journal of Immunology
Feeding saponin-containing Yucca schidigera and Quillaja saponaria to decrease enteric methane production in dairy cows
L. Holtshausen, Alex V. Chaves, K. A. Beauchemin, S. M. McGinn (2009) · Journal of Dairy Science
Natural and synthetic saponin adjuvant QS-21 for vaccines against cancer
Govind Ragupathi, Jeffrey R. Gardner, Philip O. Livingston, David Y. Gin (2011) · Expert Review of Vaccines
A multivalent bcr-abl fusion peptide vaccination trial in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia
Kathleen N. S. Cathcart, Javier Pinilla‐Ibarz, Tatyana Korontsvit, Joseph E. Schwartz (2003) · Blood
Surface Rheology of Saponin Adsorption Layers
Rumyana D. Stanimirova, K. Marinova, Slavka Tcholakova, Nikolai D. Denkov (2011) · Langmuir
Elucidation of the pathway for biosynthesis of saponin adjuvants from the soapbark tree
James Reed, Anastasia Orme, Amr El‐Demerdash, Charlotte Owen (2023) · Science
Saponins from Quillaja saponaria and Quillaja brasiliensis: Particular Chemical Characteristics and Biological Activities
Juliane Deise Fleck, Andresa Heemann Betti, Francini Pereira da Silva, Eduardo Artur Troian (2019) · Molecules
Industrial uses and sustainable supply ofQuillaja saponaria (Rosaceae) saponins
Ricardo Martín, Reinaldo Briones (1999) · Economic Botany

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 32 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.