Nicotiana tabacum L.
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
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Family
Solanaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Extensively cultivated, one of the most important crops of Porto Rico, Tobacco is, occasionally, spontaneous from its seed, in fields and in waste grounds but, being an annual herb, is usually not long persistent. It is widely planted in temperate and tropical regions, in quality differing in different soils and climates. The plant is regarded as a native of South America; it has been used for smoking by primitive peoples of America for an indefinitely long period of time. There are some 50 species of Nicotiana most of them American. Linnaeus took up the generic name from the writings of his eminent predecessor Tournefort; it was given in honor of John Nicot, a French ambassador to Portugal, who sent some species to Catharine de Medici about 1560. They are viscid-hairy herbs and shrubs, with large, thin, alternate leaves, and mostly large flowers, white, yellow, greenish, or purplish, in terminal clusters. The tubular to ovoid calyx is 5-cleft; the funnelform corolla has a 5-lobed limb, mostly shorter than the tube; the 5 stamens, with long filaments, are borne on the corolla-tube; the ovary is 2-celled, or 4-celled, the style slender, the stigma capitate. The dry, capsular fruit splits into 2, or 4 valves, releasing the many, small seeds. Nicotiana Tabacum (aboriginal name) grows from about 1 meter to about 2 meters in height, usually without branches. The stalkless, oblong or lance-shaped, pointed leaves are from 10 to 30 centimeters long, the narrowed bases of the lower ones decurrent on the stem. The calyx is about 12 millimeters long, with ovate lobes; the pink corolla is about 5 centimeters long, with triangular, long-pointed lobes. The ripe capsule is longer than the calyx.
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Discussion
Tabaco Tobacco Potato Family Nicotiana Tabacum Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 180. 1753.