Nicotiana

Tobacco Nicotiana tabacum, copyright Joachim Müllerchen.

Belongs within: Solanaceae.

Nicotiana, the tobaccos, is a genus of flowering plants, most diverse in the Americas, with funnel-shaped flowers borne in racemes or panicles (Hickman 1993). The leaves of several species, most notably N. tabacum, have a stimulant effect when smoked and they are widely cultivated for this purpose.

Characters (from Hickman 1993): Annual to small tree. Leaves entire. Inflorescence a raceme or panicle, terminal. Flower with calyx five-lobed, more or less enlarging, not fully enclosing fruit; corolla generally radial, generally funnel-shaped to salverform; stamens 5, equal or one smaller. Fruit a capsule. Seeds many, minute, angled.

Nicotiana
    |--+--N. glutinosa OB08
    |  `--N. paniculata OB08
    `--+--N. acuminata OB08
       |    |--N. a. var. acuminata H93
       |    `--N. a. var. multiflora H93
       `--+--N. africana OB08
          |--N. glauca OB08
          |--N. tabacum Linnaeus 1753 OB08, CD07
          `--+--N. gossei Domin 1929 OB08, BR65
             `--N. suaveolens Lehmann 1818 OB08, BR65
                  |--N. s. var. suaveolens OB08
                  `--N. s. var. excelsior Black 1915 OB08, BR65 (see below for synonymy)

Nicotiana incertae sedis:
  N. acutiflora C06
  N. alata D51
  N. attenuata H93
  N. auriculata C55
  N. australasiae [incl. N. undulata] C55
  N. benthamiana LK14
  N. bonariensis D51
  N. chinensis [incl. N. fruticosa] C55
  N. clevelandii H93
  N. debneyi P82
  N. digluta D37
  N. goodspeedii Wheeler 1935 BR65
  N. ingulba Black 1933 BR65
  N. langsdorfii D51
  N. longiflora C55
  N. maritima Wheeler 1935 BR65
  N. megalosiphon M99
  N. obtusifolia [incl. N. trigonophylla] H93
  N. occidentalis Wheeler 1935 BR65
    |--N. o. ssp. occidentalis KM08
    `--N. o. ssp. hesperis KM08
  N. persica C55
  N. plumbaginifolia VB02
  N. quadrivalvis [incl. N. bigelovii, N. bigelovii var. wallacei] H93
  N. rotundifolia Lindley 1838 (see below for synonymy) BR65
  N. rusbyi D37
  N. rustica BR65
    |--N. r. var. rustica D51
    |--N. r. var. humilis D51
    `--N. r. var. texana D51
  N. sylvestris D51
  N. tomentosa D37
  N. tomentosiformis GM96
  N. velutina Wheeler 1935 BR65

Nicotiana rotundifolia Lindley 1838 [=N. suaveolens var. rotundifolia Comes 1899; incl. N. fastigiata Nees 1844, N. suaveolens var. rosulata Moore 1898, N. rosulata Domin 1929] BR65

Nicotiana suaveolens var. excelsior Black 1915 OB08, BR65 [=N. excelsior Black 1926 BR65; incl. N. macrocalyx Domin 1929 BR65]

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[BR65] Black, J. M., & E. L. Robertson. 1965. Flora of South Australia. Part IV. Oleaceae–Compositae. W. L. Hawes, Government Printer: Adelaide.

[C55] Candolle, A. de. 1855. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 2. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[CD07] Cantino, P. D., J. A. Doyle, S. W. Graham, W. S. Judd, R. G. Olmstead, D. E. Soltis, P. S. Soltis & M. J. Donoghue. 2007. Towards a phylogenetic nomenclature of Tracheophyta. Taxon 56 (3): E1–E44.

[C06] Cheeseman, T. F. 1906. Manual of the New Zealand Flora. John Mackay, Government Printer: Wellington.

[D37] Dobzhansky, T. 1937. Genetics and the Origin of Species. Columbia University Press: New York.

[D51] Dobzhansky, T. 1951. Genetics and the Origin of Species 3^rd ed. Columbia University Press: New York.

[GM96] Griffiths, A. J. F., J. H. Miller, D. T. Suzuki, R. C. Lewontin & W. M. Gelbart. 1996. An Introduction to Genetic Analysis 6^th ed. W. H. Freeman and Company: New York.

[H93] Hickman, J. C. (ed.) 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press: Berkeley (California).

[KM08] Keighery, G. J., & W. Muir. 2008. Vegetation and vascular flora of Faure Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 75: 11–19.

[LK14] Lyons, M. N., G. J. Keighery, L. A. Gibson & T. Handasyde. 2014. Flora and vegetation communities of selected islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 205–244.

[M99] Matthews, M. 1999. Heliothine Moths of Australia: A guide to bollworms and related noctuid groups. CSIRO Publishing.

[OB08] Olmstead, R. G., L. Bohs, H. A. Migid, E. Santiago-Valentin, V. F. Garcia & S. M. Collier. 2008. A molecular phylogeny of the Solanaceae. Taxon 57 (4): 1159–1181.

[P82] Pickard, J. 1982. Catastrophic disturbance and vegetation on Little Slope, Lord Howe Island. Australian Journal of Ecology 7: 161–170.

[VB02] Vijay, S. K., & T. N. Bhardwaja. 2002. Vegetation and phenodynamics of wetlands of central Rajasthan. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 99 (3): 573–581.

Last updated: 3 April 2020.