Nicotiana glauca

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Nicotiana glauca
Nicotiana glauca (8694803666).jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae
Genus: Nicotiana
Species:
N. glauca
Binomial name
Nicotiana glauca
Synonyms [1]
  • Nicotidendron glauca(Graham) Griseb.
  • Nicotiana glauca f. lateritiaLillo
  • Nicotiana glauca var. angustifoliaComes
  • Nicotiana glauca var. decurrensComes
  • Nicotiana glauca var. grandifloraComes
  • Siphaulax glabraRaf.

Nicotiana glauca is a species of flowering plant in the tobacco genus Nicotiana of the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is known by the common name tree tobacco. Its leaves are attached to the stalk by petioles (many other Nicotiana species have sessile leaves), and its leaves and stems are neither pubescent nor sticky like Nicotiana tabacum . It resembles Cestrum parqui but differs in the form of leaves and fusion of the outer floral parts. It grows to heights of more than two meters.

Contents

Tree tobacco is native to South America but it is now widespread as an introduced species on other continents. It is a common roadside weed in the southwestern United States, and an invasive plant species in California native plant habitats.

Description

Nicotiana glauca is a small tree or shrub with many branches that normally grows to over 2 m, but can reach as high as 7 m. Its leaves are thick and rubbery and can be up to 20 cm long. It has yellow tubular flowers about 5 cm long and 1 cm wide. The plant primarily reproduces by seed. [2]

Ecology

Nicotiana glauca can pose a threat to native species by outcompeting them for resources and is classified as an invasive species in many parts of the world. In some management programmes, the beetle Malabris aculeata has been successfully deployed as a biological control agent. Every part of the plant is potentially poisonous to humans and livestock. [2]

Distribution

It is originally native to South America (including Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador), [1] but has been naturalized globally. It is found in Australia, warmer parts of Europe, temperate Asia, Canarian Archipelago, New Zealand, the United States, Mexico, Hawaii, and Sub-Saharan Africa (including Kenya and Tanzania, where it is invasive, as well as Uganda). [2]

Vacant lot in Los Angeles with Nicotiana glauca plants. Vacant lot in Los Angeles with Nicotiana glauca.jpg
Vacant lot in Los Angeles with Nicotiana glauca plants.

It grows in a wide variety of open and disturbed habitats including lakeshores and roadsides, but is mainly a problem in relatively dry areas. [2]

Names

The plant is commonly known in English as tree tobacco, Brazilian tree tobacco, shrub tobacco, wild tobacco, tobacco tree, tobacco bush, tobacco plant, and mustard tree. [2]

In Spanish and throughout Latin America, it is known by many names including: tabaco moro ("Moorish tobacco"), [1] palancho, and palán palán. [3]

Its botanical name, Nicotiana glauca, was given to it in 1828 by Robert Graham. [1] [4] The genus is named after Jean Nicot (c.1530-1600), a French ambassador to Portugal, who sent tobacco seeds and powdered leaves from Lisbon to France. [5]

Phylogeny

There are around 76 species in the Nicotiana genus, [1] the sole member of the Nicotianeae tribe. Phylogenetic research suggests the following species are closely related: [6]

N. acaulis Speg.

N. glaucaGraham

N. noctiflora Hook.

N. petunioides (Griseb.) Millán

Uses

The plant is used for a variety of medicinal purposes by Native American groups. [7] The Cahuilla people used leaves interchangeably with other tobacco species in religious rituals and as a poultice to treat swellings, bruises, cuts, wounds, boils, sores, inflamed throat, and swollen glands. It contains high doses of the alkaloids anabasine and nicotine such that ingestion of the leaves can be fatal. [8] It is being investigated for use as a biofuel. [9]

Related Research Articles

<i>Nicotiana</i> Genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae

Nicotiana is a genus of herbaceous plants and shrubs in the family Solanaceae, that is indigenous to the Americas, Australia, Southwestern Africa and the South Pacific. Various Nicotiana species, commonly referred to as tobacco plants, are cultivated as ornamental garden plants. N. tabacum is grown worldwide for the cultivation of tobacco leaves used for manufacturing and producing tobacco products, including cigars, cigarillos, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, dipping tobacco, snuff, and snus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bearberry</span> Common name for several plant species

Bearberries are three species of dwarf shrubs in the genus Arctostaphylos. Unlike the other species of Arctostaphylos, they are adapted to Arctic and subarctic climates, and have a circumpolar distribution in northern North America, Asia and Europe.

<i>Leucanthemum vulgare</i> Species of flowering plant

Leucanthemum vulgare, commonly known as the ox-eye daisy, oxeye daisy, dog daisy, marguerite and other common names, is a widespread flowering plant native to Europe and the temperate regions of Asia, and an introduced plant to North America, Australia and New Zealand.

<i>Streptosolen</i> Species of plant

Streptosolen is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae. It is closely related to the genus Browallia, within which it was originally placed. The single species, Streptosolen jamesonii, the marmalade bush or fire bush, is an evergreen shrub bearing loose clusters of flowers which change gradually from yellow to red as they develop, resulting in an overall appearance resembling orange marmalade, found in open woodlands in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru. In its native Ecuador, the plant has the Spanish common names flor de quinde, flor del sol and jaboncillo.

<i>Nicotiana sylvestris</i> Species of flowering plant

Nicotiana sylvestris is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae, known by the common names woodland tobacco, flowering tobacco, and South American tobacco. It is a biennial or short-lived perennial plant in the tobacco genus Nicotiana, native to the Andes region in Argentina and Bolivia, in South America.

<i>Solanum mauritianum</i> Species of tree

Solanum mauritianum is a small tree or shrub native to South America, including Northern Argentina, Southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Its common names include earleaf nightshade, woolly nightshade, flannel weed, bugweed, tobacco weed, tobacco bush, wild tobacco and kerosene plant.

<i>Nicotiana rustica</i> Species of plant

Nicotiana rustica, commonly known as Aztec tobacco or strong tobacco, is a rainforest plant in the family Solanaceae native to South America. It is a very potent variety of tobacco, containing up to nine times more nicotine than common species of Nicotiana such as Nicotiana tabacum. More specifically, N. rustica leaves have a nicotine content as high as 9%, whereas N. tabacum leaves contain about 1 to 3%. The high concentration of nicotine in its leaves makes it useful for producing pesticides, and it has a wide variety of uses specific to cultures around the world. However, N. rustica is no longer cultivated in North America, as N. tabacum has replaced it.

<i>Ficus elastica</i> Species of banyan tree

Ficus elastica, the rubber fig, rubber bush, rubber tree, rubber plant, or Indian rubber bush, Indian rubber tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae, native to eastern parts of South and Southeast Asia. It has become naturalized in Sri Lanka, the West Indies, and the US state of Florida. Despite its common names, it is not used in the commercial production of natural rubber.

<i>Nicotiana tabacum</i> Species of plant

Nicotiana tabacum, or cultivated tobacco, is an annually grown herbaceous plant of the genus Nicotiana. N. tabacum is the most commonly grown species in the genus Nicotiana, as the plant's leaves are commercially harvested to be processed into tobacco for human use. The plant is tropical in origin, is commonly grown throughout the world, and is often found in cultivation. It grows to heights between 1 and 2 meters. Research is ongoing into its ancestry among wild Nicotiana species, but it is believed to be a hybrid of Nicotiana sylvestris, N. tomentosiformis, and possibly N. otophora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anabasine</span> Chemical compound

Anabasine is a pyridine and piperidine alkaloid found in the Tree Tobacco plant, as well as in the close relative of the common tobacco plant. It is a structural isomer of, and chemically similar to, nicotine. Its principal (historical) industrial use is as an insecticide.

Pituri, also known as mingkulpa, is a mixture of leaves and wood ash traditionally chewed as a stimulant by Aboriginal Australians widely across the continent. Leaves are gathered from any of several species of native tobacco (Nicotiana) or from at least one distinct population of the species Duboisia hopwoodii. Various species of Acacia, Grevillea and Eucalyptus are burned to produce the ash. The term "pituri" may also refer to the plants from which the leaves are gathered or from which the ash is made. Some authors use the term to refer only to the plant Duboisia hopwoodii and its leaves and any chewing mixture containing its leaves.

<i>Tecoma stans</i> Species of tree

Tecoma stans is a species of flowering perennial shrub in the trumpet vine family, Bignoniaceae, that is native to the Americas. Common names include yellow trumpetbush, yellow bells, yellow elder, ginger Thomas. Tecoma stans is the official flower of the United States Virgin Islands and the floral emblem of The Bahamas.

<i>Ligustrum vulgare</i> Species of flowering plant


Ligustrum vulgare is a species of Ligustrum native to central and southern Europe, north Africa and southwestern Asia, from Ireland and southwestern Sweden south to Morocco, and east to Poland and northwestern Iran.

<i>Cestrum parqui</i> Species of flowering plant

Cestrum parqui, commonly known as palqui, green cestrum, Chilean cestrum, green poisonberry, or willow-leaved jessamine, is a species of flowering plant native to Chile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Types of tobacco</span>

This article contains a list of tobacco cultivars and varieties, as well as unique preparations of the tobacco leaf involving particular methods of processing the plant.

<i>Nicotiana acuminata</i> Species of flowering plant

Nicotiana acuminata is a species of wild tobacco known by the English common name manyflower tobacco. It is native to Argentina and Chile but it is known on other continents, including North America and Australia, as an introduced species.

<i>Nicotiana attenuata</i> Species of flowering plant

Nicotiana attenuata is a species of wild tobacco known by the common name coyote tobacco. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Texas and northern Mexico, where it grows in many types of habitat. It is a glandular and sparsely hairy annual herb exceeding a meter in maximum height. The leaf blades may be 10 centimetres (4 in) long, the lower ones oval and the upper narrower in shape, and are borne on petioles. The inflorescence bears several flowers with pinkish or greenish white tubular throats 2 to 3 centimetres long, their bases enclosed in pointed sepals. The flower face has five mostly white lobes. The fruit is a capsule about 1 centimetre long.

<i>Salix arbusculoides</i> Species of flowering plant

Salix arbusculoides is a species of flowering plant in the willow family known by the common name little tree willow. It is native to northern North America, where its distribution extends across Alaska and most of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solanaceae</span> Family of flowering plants that includes tomatoes, potatoes and tobacco

The Solanaceae, or the nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and ornamentals. Many members of the family contain potent alkaloids, and some are highly toxic, but many—including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, bell and chili peppers—are used as food. The family belongs to the order Solanales, in the asterid group and class Magnoliopsida (dicotyledons). The Solanaceae consists of about 98 genera and some 2,700 species, with a great diversity of habitats, morphology and ecology.

<i>Pachycentria glauca</i> Species of shrub in Melastomataceae family

Pachycentria glauca is a small epiphytic shrub in the Melastomataceae family. It has 2 subspecies: P. glauca subsp. glauca and P. glauca subsp. maingayi. The glauca subspecies is endemic to Borneo, the maingayi subspecies is native to Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand, perhaps Sumatra. It grows on trees, other epiphytes and rocks in partial shade. It is intimately associated with particular ant species, growing on their gardens, providing a home for them, feeding them and having its seeds dispersed by them.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Nicotiana glauca Graham". Catalog of Life. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Nicotiana glauca (Tree Tobacco) Key". BioNET-EAFRINET.
  3. "Description and images of Nicotiana galuca". Chileflora.
  4. Dr Graham (1828). "XX. Description of several New or Rare Plants which have flowered in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and chiefly in the Royal Botanic Garden, during the last three months". The Edinburgh new philosophical journal. 5: 169-176 [175]. Wikidata   Q112259636.
  5. "nicotine (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  6. "Nicotiana glauca". Open Tree of Life. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  7. "BRIT - Native American Ethnobotany Database". naeb.brit.org. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
  8. Foster, Steven (2002). Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs. Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 339. ISBN   0-395-83806-1.
  9. Media, BioAge. "Green Car Congress: Prickly Pears and Tree Tobacco for Ethanol Production in Semi-Arid Regions". www.greencarcongress.com. Retrieved 2017-03-12.