Schoenocaulon

Schoenocaulon
Schoenocaulon officinale[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
Order: Liliales
Family: Melanthiaceae
Genus: Schoenocaulon
Asa Gray
Synonyms[2]
  • Sabadilla Brandt & Ratzeb.
  • Skoinolon Raf.
  • Asagraea Lindl.

Schoenocaulon is a North American genus of perennial herbaceous flowering plants, ranging from the southern United States to Peru.[3] 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; depending on the species the flower stalks for each flower are either very short or completely absent.[4]

Plants generally grow in chaparral, oak, or pine forests. Grazing has narrowed the natural ranges of some species to only steep, rocky terrain.[5] Mexico is the center of Schoenocaulon diversity, with 22 endemic species - some with distributions limited to single mountain ranges.[4] 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-Columbians who used the seeds as pesticides.[4]

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.[4]

species[2]
  1. Schoenocaulon calcicola - Oaxaca
  2. Schoenocaulon caricifolium - Tamaulipas
  3. Schoenocaulon comatum - San Luis Potosí, Puebla, Oaxaca
  4. Schoenocaulon conzattii - Oaxaca
  5. Schoenocaulon dubium - Florida
  6. Schoenocaulon frameae - Puebla
  7. Schoenocaulon ghiesbreghtii - S Texas to Veracruz
  8. Schoenocaulon ignigenum - Tamaulipas, Nuevo León
  9. Schoenocaulon intermedium - San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo
  10. Schoenocaulon jaliscense - Jalisco, Oaxaca
  11. Schoenocaulon macrocarpum - Tamaulipas, Nuevo León
  12. Schoenocaulon madidorum - Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca
  13. Schoenocaulon megarrhizum - Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa
  14. Schoenocaulon mortonii - México State, Jalisco, Michoacán
  15. Schoenocaulon oaxacense - Oaxaca
  16. Schoenocaulon obtusum - Hidalgo, México State
  17. Schoenocaulon officinale - C + S Mexico, Central America, Venezuela
  18. Schoenocaulon pellucidum - Nayarit
  19. Schoenocaulon plumosum - Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas
  20. Schoenocaulon pringlei - Hidalgo, Veracruz, México State, D.F.
  21. Schoenocaulon rzedowskii - Mexico, Puebla
  22. Schoenocaulon tenorioi - Oaxaca, Puebla
  23. Schoenocaulon tenue - Morelos
  24. Schoenocaulon tenuifolium - Oaxaca, Puebla
  25. Schoenocaulon texanum - New Mexico, Texas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León
  26. Schoenocaulon tigrense - Jalisco

References

  1. ↑ 1897 illustration from Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  3. ↑ Zomlefer, W.B. and W.S. Judd. Systematic Botany (2008), 33(1): pp. 117–124
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Wendy B. Zomlefer, W. Mark Whitten, Norris H. Williams and Walter S. Judd (2006), "Infrageneric phylogeny of Schoenocaulon (Liliales: Melanthiaceae) with clarification of cryptic species based on ITS sequence data and geographical distribution", American Journal of Botany 93: 1178–1192, doi:10.3732/ajb.93.8.1178
  5. ↑ Frame, D. 1990. A revision of Schoenocaulon (Liliaceae: Melanthieae). Ph. D. Thesis. The City University of New York. New York. 269 pp.