Commemorating Jean Nicot (1530–1600), the French consul in Lisbon, Portugal, who sent seeds of tobacco,
Generally aromatic and often sticky annual and perennial herbs and shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, more or less stalkless, often in a basal rosette. Flower clusters terminal, branched or solitary in the leaf axils. Flowers bisexual, regular or irregular, opening at night. Calyx tubular or bell-shaped, 5-lobed, persistent. Corolla tubular to funnel- or salver-shaped with 5 lobes. Stamens 5, equal or unequal, enclosed in the corolla or protruding slightly. Ovary 2-chambered. Fruit a 2-4-chambered capsule.
Generally grown as tall, architectural border annuals or biennials with interesting tubular flowers.
The genus has a reputation for being poisonous to humans and stock but the evidence is not clear.
N. tabacum L., Tobacco, originated from S America in the pre-Columbian period and it is grown as an annual. The leaves are collected as they yellow and are then 'cured' and treated. Tobacco products include snuff, cigars, cigarettes and chewing tobacco. Solutions of prepared leaf extracts are now also used as insecticides. In Australia commercial plantations of N. tabacum have been established since about 1900. There are plantations in N Qld, a small part of S Qld and N NSW, and also in Vic along the Ovens, Kiewa and King Valleys, with Myrtleford as a focus. Cultivars have been chiefly imported from the USA. In Qld and NSW the cultivars 'Dynes', 'Lynd' and 'ZZ100' are most common while in Vic 'Speight G28' is most popular. About 60% of the Australian crop is produced in Qld, the remainder being produced mainly in Vic.
Seed.
Drugs are extracted from several species, notably N. tabacum and N. rustica, the sources of commercial tobacco.
Mostly cylindrical flowers, the calyx enclosing a capsular fruit.
About 75 species from Australia (16 species), S Pacific, S W Africa and America.
Goodspeed (1954), Horton (1981).
Source: (2002). Solanaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.