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Tree Tobacco - Nicotiana - Wild Tobacco (Nicotiana glauca) Flowering Tree Nicotiana Tobacco Tree

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Nicotiana - Tree Tobacco (Nicotiana glauca) Flowering Tree Nicotiana Tobacco Tree

Perennial

Height 6 to 10 ft

Nicotiana glauca is a flowering plant species of wild tobacco known by the common name tree tobacco in the nightshade family Solanaceae. 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. Leaves of the N. glauca are large, alternate, ovate, and blue-green in color with a powdery coating, and are smoked for ritual purposes by Navajo Indians. Plants bear yellow flowers if given a long enough growing season.

Tree tobacco is native to South America, and it is now widespread as an introduced species on other continents; it is a common roadside weed in the southwestern United States. NOTE: Ingestion of N. glauca is generally fatal. Anabasine, an isomer of nicotine that appears to be more toxic than ni cotine, probably accounts for much of the toxicity of N. glauca. DO NOT INGEST. The plant is used for a variety of medicinal purposes and smoked by Native American groups. The Cahuilla people used leaves interchangeably with other tobacco species in hunting rituals and as a poultice to treat swellings, bruises, cuts, wounds, boils, sores, inflamed throat, and swollen glands.

Attracts bees, moths hummingbirds and butterflies. Plants require plenty of pinching out which helps keep the tree tobacco at a tidy size for most gardens. 

  • Prefers part sun
  • Will self-seed
  • Blooms summer to Fall
  • Direct sow/scatter seed in early spring, but you won’t get much of a display until August.
  • Germination: 20 to 22 C
  • OR for earlier blooms, start seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the last frost date. Seeds should be surface-sown since they need light to germinate.
  • In 10 days or so, the seeds will sprout and soon form attractive little rosettes.
  • Leaves yellow quickly if the seedlings get hungry. Feed plants with a weekly mix of fish emulsion and water-soluble 20-20-20 fertilizer, using each at half strength.
  • As the frost-free date nears, gradually acclimate seedlings to the outdoors.
  • Seed Count: 5