Nicotiana tabacum L.
tobacco
Annual or short-lived perennial, 0.5-2 m tall, mostly puberulent, viscid with glandular scales. Lvs sessile or the lowest with a short winged petiole, often amplexicaul. Lamina to c. 30 × 12 cm on lower lvs, becoming smaller towards the terminal infl. (much larger in cultivation), oblong-elliptic or lanceolate; apex acute. Panicle open and much-branched, many-flowered except in depauperate plants, densely glandular-scaly. Fls not fragrant. Calyx 1.5-2 cm long; teeth 2-9 mm long, unequal, acute to acuminate. Corolla 4-5 cm long, ± funnelform-campanulate with broad-cylindric base, slightly glandular inside; tube creamy white; lobes c. 5 mm long, broadly triangular-ovate, apiculate, pink, ± crinkled, becoming reflexed. Capsule 1.5-2 cm long, broad-ovate. Seed 0.5-0.75 mm long, oblong to subreniform, rugose.
N.: occasional escape from cultivation, scattered in lowland areas; K.: established on North Meyer Islet and Raoul Id.
Probably Bolivia and N.E. Argentina 1853
Open disturbed sites, scrub margins, open forest.
FL Jul-Mar.
Tobacco is still a crop in the Motueka District of Nelson Province and to a minor extent is cultivated elsewhere. However, it has become increasingly evident that smoking tobacco is injurious to health and therefore the plant has to be regarded as poisonous.
