Featherbells

Description

Stenanthium is a North American genus of flowering plants in the tribe Melanthieae of the family Melanthiaceae. Featherbells is a common name for plants in this genus. Three species were removed from the genus to Anticlea and two or three (depending on whether S. leimanthoides is maintained as a separate species) added from Zigadenus sensu lato, the deathcamases. (See also Phylogeny of Melanthieae.) Members of Stenanthium, as currently circumscribed, may also be distinguished from other deathcamases by having a slender cylindrical bulb and the lack of sarcotesta on its brown seeds. They occur in the eastern and south-central United States.