Saponaria

Saponaria 

a genus of herbaceous plants of the family Caryophyllaceae. The flowers are in paniculate or capitulate inflorescences. The calyx is gamophyllous, and the corolla is pink, white, or sometimes yellow and consists of five petals. The fruit is a unilocular capsule. There are about 30 species, distributed in Eurasia, mainly in the Mediterranean region and eastward to Western Siberia and Middle Asia. Ten species are found in the USSR, including the soapwort (Saponaria officinalis), which grows along forest edges and in river valleys. The plant’s saponin-rich rhizomes and roots are used in industry, under the designation of “red soaproot,” and in medicine (mainly as an expectorant). Double-flowered forms of the soapwort are used in floriculture.