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desert tobacco

Habit Herbs, annual or short-lived perennial, without marked basal rosette.
Stems

branched from base, (slender, brittle), 5–10 dm, viscid-tomentose.

Cauline leaves

petiole short and winged or leaves sessile;

proximal blades oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, distal blades panduriform to trigonate, 5–20 cm, smaller very near inflorescence, base somewhat clasping, apex acute or acuminate, surfaces densely viscid-pubescent.

Inflorescences

secund false racemes, occasionally few-branched, somewhat leafy; flowering diurnal.

Pedicels

0.2–0.5 cm.

Flowers

calyx green, cup-shaped, 10-ribbed, 0.8–2 cm, with minute membranous sinuses, pubescent and somewhat rough, lobes triangular to long-triangular, ± unequal, as long or longer than tube, tips slightly recurved;

corolla straight, 1.2–3.5 cm (excluding limb), viscid-pubescent externally, tube gray-green, cream, or ± yellowish cream, 0.3–0.6 cm × 2–4 mm, widening to throat 6–12 × 5 mm, glabrous or minutely puberulent within, limb slightly reflexed to spreading, cream or whitish green, pentagonal, 0.6–8 cm diam., lobes broadly triangular and rounded apically, equal;

stamens inserted at base of throat, included;

filaments unequal, 4 straight, 1.2–3.4 cm, sometimes kneed, extending to corolla mouth, 1 shorter, 1–2 cm, not kneed, curved away from corolla, all slightly pubescent just above insertion point;

style straight, just exceeding longest stamens.

Fruiting calyces

not tearing at sinuses, covering lower 2/3 of capsule.

Capsules

broadly ovoid (acute), 0.8–1.1 cm.

Seeds

0.5 mm.

2n

= 24.

Nicotiana obtusifolia

Phenology Flowering year-round.
Habitat Rocky or gravelly areas in deserts.
Elevation 0–2500(–2900) m. (0–8200(–9500) ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NM; NV; OK; TX; UT; Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 14.
Parent taxa Solanaceae > Nicotiana
Sibling taxa
N. acuminata, N. attenuata, N. clevelandii, N. glauca, N. longiflora, N. plumbaginifolia, N. quadrivalvis, N. repanda, N. rustica, N. sylvestris, N. tabacum
Synonyms N. glandulosa, N. multiflora, N. palmeri, N. trigonophylla
Name authority M. Martens & Galeotti: Bull. Acad. Roy. Soc. Bruxelles 12(1): 129. (1845)
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