Kingdom Plantae Genus Stenanthium Order Liliales | Family Melanthiaceae Rank Species | |
Similar Stenanthium, Stenanthium leimanthoides, Amianthium, Liliales, Anticlea | ||
Stenanthium densum is a poisonous but spectacular monocot wildflower native to pine barrens of the eastern United States. Stenanthium leimanthoides is either treated as a synonym of this species or as a separate species. It is known variously as Osceola's plume, crowpoison, or black snakeroot.
Within the family Melanthiaceae, it is placed in the tribe Melanthieae. Molecular phylogenetic studies in the 21st century have resulted in substantial rearrangement of the species in this tribe, many being moved to different genera. S. densum was previously placed in Zigadenus as Z. densum, and will be found under this name in older sources.
It is native to the southernmost Gulf Coast, from eastern Louisiana east, down through most of Florida, and to the easternmost Atlantic Coast north to Rhode Island, seldom far from the coast.