Nicotiana glauca
Nicotiana quadrivalvis
tree tobacco
Bigelow's tobacco, four-valved tobacco, Indian or Bigelow's or Wallace's tobacco, Indian tobacco, wild tobacco
usually branched near base, occasionally with distinct trunk (branches drooping), 10–60(–100) dm, glabrous, somewhat glaucous.
single or with multiple robust branches, 3–20 dm, moist, patent, viscid-pubescent.
petiole length 1/2 blade (not winged);
blade ovate to lanceolate, 5–25 cm, base acute or cordate, apex rounded, (rubbery), surfaces glabrous, glaucous.
sessile or short-petiolate, congested toward inflorescence;
blade ovate to lanceolate, 1–4 cm, gradually decreasing in size and narrower distally, apex acute to acuminate, surfaces coarsely viscid-pubescent.
branched, not leafy; flowering diurnal.
unbranched or few-branched, leafy to bracteate; flowering crepuscular.
0.3–1 cm.
0.4–1 cm (longer in fruit).
calyx green, (evenly cylindric), 1–1.5 cm, without membranous sinuses, glabrous or minutely pubescent, lobes sharply triangular, equal, much shorter than tube;
corolla straight, 2.5–4.5 cm (excluding limb), glabrous or finely pubescent externally, tube bright yellow to greenish yellow, (cylindric to clavate, slightly constricted apically), 0.5–0.8 cm × 3 mm, widening slightly to throat 1.5–4 cm × 6–8 mm, glabrous within, limb assurgent, greenish yellow or bright green (usually distinct color from tube in young flowers), turning yellow and same color as tube with age, circular or pentagonal, 0.6–0.8 cm diam., lobes rounded, broadly triangular, equal;
stamens inserted at base of throat, extending to corolla mouth;
filaments subequal 2.5–4.5 cm, (geniculate at base), glabrous;
style straight, exceeding stamens and exserted from corolla mouth.
calyx green, elliptic, 10-ridged (or more in fasciated plants), 0.9–3.5 cm, densely viscid-pubescent, (trichomes occasionally with swollen bases), lobes linear, ± equal, length equaling or sometimes exceeding tube, sinus membranes long, transparent;
corolla straight, 2–5 cm (excluding limb), minutely viscid-pubescent externally, tube and throat not well differentiated, white or ivory, or tinged purple externally and oily-glossy, broadly trumpet-shaped, tubular portion from 2 mm diam. at base to 7 mm diam. at mouth (much wider in fasciated varieties), glabrous or minutely puberulent internally, limb spreading, cream to white flushed with grayish purple (externally), stellate to pentagonal, 2–5 cm diam., lobes broadly triangular, acute;
stamens unequal, 4 inserted just below mouth, exserted, 1 inserted ca. 1 cm deeper in throat, included;
filaments ± equal, 0.3–1 cm, glabrous;
style straight, just exceeding stamens.
not tearing along sinuses, covering mature capsule.
not tearing at sinuses, completely enclosing capsule.
ovoid, 0.7–1.5 cm.
narrowly ovoid, 1–2.5 cm.
0.5 mm.
0.9 mm.
trees or shrubs.
leaves: petiole length to 1/2 blade;
blade elliptic to narrowly ovate, 1–1.5 cm, surfaces usually viscid-pubescent abaxially, glabrous adaxially.
= 24.
= 48.
Nicotiana glauca
Nicotiana quadrivalvis
Nicotiana glauca is registered as an invasive plant in the United States (www.invasives.org). It can form monodominant stands due to high seed set and germination success. It was originally introduced from Argentina to Mexico, thence to the United States and worldwide (T. H. Goodspeed 1954). Siphaulax glabra Rafinesque is an illegitimate, superfluous name for this species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Nicotiana quadrivalvis was widely cultivated by western Native American peoples, and prior to European expansion to the west, was grown from Haida Gwaii in British Columbia across the Great Plains to North Dakota and Missouri. The tobacco collected by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in North Dakota was N. quadrivalvis; however, recent collections from this area are only from cultivated plants (for example, Reveal 8376, NY). Plants derived from cultivated forms often have supernumerary flower parts (fasciation) and flowers with more than five petals. These forms are most often collected from northern California northwards; the first collection of this type was made along the Columbia River in Oregon by David Douglas.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
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USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
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