Region: America, Africa.
Habitat: fields, woodland, disturbed localities; elevations up to 1500 metres; dry, rocky, open hillsides or open thickets; sometimes in brushy pine forests.
Botany: herb, weed; leaves alternate, no lobes or serrations along their margins; flowers tubular, regular, symmetrical; fruits capsular.
Content: alkaloids; glycosides; schwenckioside; sapogenins, effecting the heart.
Use: chewing sticks for cleaning the teeth; fish poison.
LiteratureProtabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa.
Standley P.C. & J. A. Steyermark: http://www.archive.org/
http://www.backyardnature.net/mexnat/schwenck.htm