''Schoenocaulon'' is a

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

genus of perennial herbaceous

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s, ranging from the southern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. It is a member of the Melanthiaceae, according to the APG III classification system, and is placed in the tribe Melanthieae. Unlike other genera in the tribe, the flowers are arranged in a

spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

; depending on the species the flower stalks for each flower are either very short or completely absent. Feathershank is a common name, the medicinally used ''S. officinale'' is called Sabadilla (pronunciation: /sab-uh-dil-uh/,

IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...

: /ˌsæb əˈdɪl ə/). Plants generally grow in

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

, oak, or pine forests. Grazing has narrowed the natural ranges of some species to only steep, rocky terrain.Frame, D. 1990. A revision of ''Schoenocaulon'' (Liliaceae: Melanthieae). Ph. D. Thesis. The City University of New York. New York. 269 pp.

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

is the center of ''Schoenocaulon'' diversity, with 22

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species - some with distributions limited to single mountain ranges. The two species with the widest distributions, ''S. yucatanense'' (sometimes treated as part of ''S. ghiesbreghtii'') and ''S. officinale'' (sabadilla), may have been spread by

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

s who used the seeds as pesticides. The petal and sepal color varies by species, with some shade of green being most common, but with maroon, cream, and bright red also represented. ; species

References

Melanthiaceae genera Flora of Mexico Flora of Central America Flora of the South-Central United States Flora of the Southern United States Flora of northern South America Taxa named by Asa Gray Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{liliales-stub