There is so much to see in nature that we can overlook many of its wonders. But there are times when we suddenly see and appreciate something we have looked at countless times without really noticing its special beauty or detail.

Suddenly perceiving something of interest can be a matter of being present at a particular time of day or season or during certain weather. For example, you can notice anew the patterns and colors of bark on different oak species. There are the old valley oaks, with their deeply furrowed bark as rough as an old elephant hide, and there are the black oaks with their elegant black-gray-white bark that in the rain appear as earth-bound modern art.

If we look closely, there is always much to discover, including flowers. They are dynamic and can change dramatically in appearance throughout the day and night. We have to be present to catch a fleeting moment.

Flowers cater to specific pollinators and open and release pollen and nectar when the pollinator is active, day or night. Bee-pollinated plants are open during the day or part of the day, and moth-pollinated flowers open in the early evening, night and early morning.

If we encounter a plant with blooms closed during the time of day we see it, we may inadvertently conclude the plant has uninteresting flowers.

There are more than 3,000 species of vascular plants spread over much of California bordering the Pacific Ocean, an area considered a biodiversity hot spot (Vascular plants have vascular tissues which distribute resources through the plant).

Of these, 60% are not found in any other state. Some are found over a small area, while others are widespread.

Some of the most common plants in our region can be overlooked, almost disappearing into woodlands or chaparral in favor of more showy species. I long overlooked the attraction of the wavy-leaf soap plant, a bulb I had seen for years but paid no attention to other than noticing large patches of the wavy-edge basal leaves on roadsides along the highway or beside hiking trails. The tall flowering stems and flowers looked nondescript and almost weedy. It wasn’t until I was out for a walk early one morning in May that I saw the delicate white blooms fully open like a frothy white cloud and came to appreciate the plant’s simple beauty.

The flowers open in late afternoon or early evening and stay open until the morning. When they close for the day, they don’t look like much. They are pollinated by moths but also visited in the morning by native bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Deer don’t eat the plant, but it is a larval host plant for the elfin brown butterfly. The multitude of white flowers bloom on thin, leafless, highly branching stems about 3 feet tall. It is in the lily family and the flowers have three narrow recurved petals and three sepals, with six very long showy stamens that give the flowers an almost exotic appearance. There can be a purple or green midrib on the back of each petal. The flowers apparently have a slight fragrance in the evening.

The bulb itself is fairly large at 2 to 5 inches long and covered with coarse brown fibers that appear woven. Containing saponin, the bulb, when crushed and rubbed in water, produces a soap-like lather that Native Americans used for washing and to stupefy fish.

The soap plant grows in open grassy woodlands, along rocky banks and roadsides, bluffs and in chaparral from the San Diego area to southern Oregon. It is drought-deciduous like many other native bulbs such as calochortus, tritelea and dichelostemma, and disappears in summer, reappearing in the fall when the rains start. It can be included in drought-resistant gardens and combines well with native plants like manzanitas. It should receive no water other than rainfall.

Other native plants with flowers that are open from early evening until early the next morning are the tarweeds, Hemezonias and Madia.

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