From the Brazilian Petum, the name used for the closely related tobacco plant, Nicotiana.
Annual and perennial herbs and shrubs. Stems covered with sticky hairs. Leaves alternate, entire. Flowers solitary in upper leaf axils. Calyx deeply 5-lobed. Corolla funnel- or salver-shaped, the lobes equal. Stamens slightly below the middle of the tube, 4 fertile, 1 sterile. Fruit a 2-chambered capsule containing numerous seeds. [Calibrachoa Lex.]
Grown as P. ×hybrida, the extremely popular and fragrant summer bedding plant (sometimes grown in pots) available in many different colours and sizes.
Non-cultivated species have been noted as a source of hallucinogens.
Seed, although cuttings may be used for desired cultivars.
Sticky plants with large, colourful flowers with 5 stamens in 2 pairs and 1 sterile stamen, all attached just below the middle of the tube.
About 35 species from tropical S America, chiefly Brazil.
Symon (1981a), Wijsman (1982), Sink (1984), Ando et al. (1992).
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.
