Tree tobacco is an erect, glabrous and glaucous perennial growing to 24' tall with drooping branches and alternate, entire, ovate to ovate-lanceolate leaves on long petioles.  The flower has a long, tubular 5-lobed greenish-yellow corolla only slightly flared at the apex and a 5-cleft, unequally-toothed calyx.  Tree tobacco was originally introduced from South America by the Spanish, and blooms from April to September. It is common and has been naturalized in waste and disturbed areas, stream beds and roadsides. Like many species of the Nightshade family, it is poisonous to ingest in any form.  The other species of Nicotiana in Southern California have whitish to cream-
colored flowers and generally glandular-hairy herbage.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Nicotiana 2) glauca.
Pronunciation: ni-ko-tee-AY-na GLAW-ka.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.