Home | > | List of families | > | Solanaceae | > | Nicotiana | > | tabacum |
Synonyms: | |
Common names: | Chikwarimba (Shona) Fodya (Shona) Hunga (Shona) Igwayi (Ndebele) Tobacco (English) |
Frequency: | Occasional |
Status: | Introduced |
Description: |
Somewhat bushy annual or short-lived perennial, to 2 m. Leaves obovate-spathulate to elliptic or sometimes lanceolate, 50 cm or more in length but upper leaves smaller, green or brownish, ± hairy and sticky glandular on both surfaces; base narrowing into a winged petiole, decurrent on the stem; lower leaves often forming a rosette; margin entire but wavy. Flowers in branched, terminal and axillary heads. Corolla pale greenish to white with pink or reddish lobes, expanded into a wide gaping throat; tube up to 8 cm long. Fruit more or less erect, narrowly ellipsoid, ovoid or round, 10-20 mm long, brownish, hairless, beaked, splitting above into 2 valves. |
Notes: | Widely cultivated for cigarette tobacco, medicinal purposes and occasionally as a garden ornamental. |
Derivation of specific name: | |
Habitat: | It escapes cultivation and as been recorded from riverbeds, anthills and in old cultivation and waste places. |
Altitude range: (metres) | Up to 1460 m |
Flowering time: | |
Worldwide distribution: | Originating in N Argentina and Bolivia but now throughout tropical South America, Central America and the southern United States. |
Zimbabwe distribution: | C,S |
Growth form(s): | |
Endemic status: | |
Red data list status: | |
Insects associated with this species: | Chrysodeixis chalcites (Food plant) Maruca vitrata (Larval food plant) Oedicentra albipennis (Larval foodplant) |
Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
Images last updated: | Sunday 1 June 2008 |
Literature: |
Gonçalves, A.E. (2005). Solanaceae Flora Zambesiaca 8(4) Pages 17 - 18. Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 79. Shone, D.K. & Drummond, R.B. (1965). Poisonous Plants of Rhodesia Ministry of Agriculture, Rhodesia Page 37. |
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