Amianthium is a genus of perennial monocot plants found in eastern North America. The genus contains only one species, known as Amianthium muscitoxicum. Its common names include "fly poison" and "stagger grass". The species name muscitoxicum comes from a direct Latin translation of "fly poison": muscae = flies, toxicum = poison. The entire plant is poisonous to an array of species, including humans, and the bulb is particularly toxic. A. muscitoxicum was first recorded by Thomas Walter in his work Flora Caroliniana in 1788.
Beetles pollinating Fly Poison, a woodland wildflower, prefer plants with more and sweeter nectar, so those plants set more seed. Beetles mostly treat each plant as an individual, though the payoff of making lots of nectar shifts a bit depending on how generous the neighboring plants are.
