Nicotiana insecticida

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Nicotiana insecticida
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae
Genus: Nicotiana
Species:
N. insecticida
Binomial name
Nicotiana insecticida

Nicotiana insecticida is a species of plant of the family Solanaceae native to Western Australia. A wild tobacco, it is covered in sticky glandular hairs that trap and kill small insects, including gnats, aphids, and flies. It is the first wild tobacco plant discovered to kill insects. It grows to a height of 1.5 m (4.9 ft) and has leaves that are between 3.6–20.2 cm (1+12–8 in) long and 1.1–8 cm (123+14 in) wide. The height of its flowering is in late winter to spring. Its white flowers regularly self-pollinate, producing dry fruit and seeds. The plants are annual and wither after fruiting. Often growing in the shade of mulga or gum trees or on the shady sides of rocks or in caves, it ranges from near the Indian Ocean in north-western Western Australia to central portions of the Northern Territory, mostly north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Botanists Mark Wayne Chase and Maarten J. M. Christenhusz wrote the species description in 2021. [1] Nicotiana insecticida are remarkable in its insect trapping abilities. The species epithet, insecticida, is Latin for insect killer, and refers to this species killing many small insects with its extremely sticky hairs. [2]

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.

<i>Solanum carolinense</i> Species of plant

Solanum carolinense, the Carolina horsenettle, is not a true nettle, but a member of the Solanaceae, or nightshade family. It is a perennial herbaceous plant, native to the southeastern United States, though its range has expanded throughout much of temperate North America. The plant is an invasive in parts of Europe, Asia, and Australia. The stem and undersides of larger leaf veins are covered with prickles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyatheales</span> Order of ferns

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

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, 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.

<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>Roridula</i> Insect-trapping shrublet from South Africa

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<i>Pandanus tectorius</i> Species of plant

Pandanus tectorius is a species of Pandanus (screwpine) that is native to Malesia, Papuasia, eastern Australia, and the Pacific Islands. It grows in the coastal lowlands typically near the edge of the ocean. Common names in English include thatch screwpine, Tahitian screwpine, hala tree and pandanus. The edible fruit is sometimes known as hala fruit.

<i>Manduca quinquemaculata</i> Species of moth

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

Nicotiana tabacum, or cultivated tobacco, is an annually grown herbaceous plant of the Nicotiana genus. 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, Nicotiana tomentosiformis, and possibly Nicotiana otophora. It is the most commonly grown of all plants in the genus Nicotiana, the plants' leaves commercially grown to be processed into tobacco.

<i>Schizanthus</i> Genus of flowering plants

Schizanthus, also called butterfly flower, fringeflower, poor-man's-orchid, is a genus of plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae.

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Ceodes umbellifera, synonym Pisonia umbellifera, commonly known as the birdlime tree or bird catcher tree, is a species of plant in the Nyctaginaceae family. The evergreen shrub has soft wood, small pink or yellow flowers, and produces cavate brown fruit throughout the period March to April. The species has been categorized under different genera in its documented lifetime, being reallocated between Pisonia and Ceodes. Its former genus, Pisonia, is named after a Dutch scientist, Willem Piso, and umbellifera is derived from Latin umbelliferum, denoting the species' big, 'shade-carrying' foliage.

Mark Wayne Chase is a US-born British botanist. He is noted for work in plant classification and evolution, and one of the instigators of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group-classification for flowering plants which is partly based on DNA studies. In particular he has researched orchids, and currently investigates ploidy and hybridization in Nicotiana.

<i>Solanum physalifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maarten J. M. Christenhusz</span> Dutch botanist

Dr Maarten Joost Maria Christenhusz is a Dutch botanist, natural historian and photographer.

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

Nicotiana langsdorffii, Langsdorff's tobacco, is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae, native to Brazil. Growing to 1.5 m (4.9 ft) tall by 0.5 m (1.6 ft) broad, it is an annual plant with large sticky leaves up to 10 in (25 cm) long. It bears 2 in (5.1 cm) long, nodding, tubular bell-shaped flowers that are apple green in colour, with blue anthers. N. langsdorfii lacks fragrance, unlike some of the other tall species. It is grown as an ornamental garden plant.

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The Solanaceae, or 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.

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References

  1. Sarchet, Penny (August 10, 2021). "Insect-killing plant found by Australian highway is new to science". New Scientist. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  2. Chase, Mark W.; Christenhusz, Maarten J. M. (2021). "994. NICOTIANA INSECTICIDA: Solanaceae". Curtis's Botanical Magazine. 38 (3): 350–364. doi:10.1111/curt.12402. ISSN   1355-4905.