Flora of North America species comparison

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Nicotiana quadrivalvis

Nicotiana repanda

Bigelow's tobacco, four-valved tobacco, Indian or Bigelow's or Wallace's tobacco, Indian tobacco, wild tobacco

fiddleleaf tobacco, wild tobacco
Habit Herbs, annual, from basal rosette. Herbs, annual, from basal rosette.
Stems

single or with multiple robust branches, 3–20 dm, moist, patent, viscid-pubescent.

loosely branched, 5–15 dm, rough with minute tubercules.
Cauline leaves

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.

sessile;

blade pandurate, becoming smaller distally, distal leaves oblong-ovate or pandurate, 1–5 cm, base clasping, apex acute, surfaces softly viscid-pubescent.
Inflorescences

unbranched or few-branched, leafy to bracteate; flowering crepuscular.

long, flexuous false racemes, occasionally with shorter lateral branches, not leafy; flowering crepuscular.
Pedicels

0.4–1 cm (longer in fruit).

0.3–0.7 cm.
Flowers

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.

calyx green, 1.5 cm, minutely hispid, tube globose, strongly 10-ribbed, lobes erect, linear, length equaling tube, subequal, viscid-pubescent;

corolla white, straight, 4–6 cm (excluding limb), sparsely pubescent or glabrous at base, tube white, straight, 3–5.5 cm × 1 mm, gradually widening to gaping throat 5–6 × 3 mm, cobwebby-pubescent internally, limb spreading or (in daytime) slightly assurgent, white, pentagonal, 2–2.4 cm diam., lobes acute apically;

stamens inserted at base of throat, included;

filaments equal (fused to corolla tube for their entire length, anthers appearing sessile), glabrous;

style straight, equaling stamens.
Fruiting calyces

not tearing at sinuses, completely enclosing capsule.

not tearing at sinuses, covering entire capsule.
Capsules

narrowly ovoid, 1–2.5 cm.

ovoid, 1 cm.
Seeds

0.9 mm.

0.6 mm.
Rosette

leaves: petiole length to 1/2 blade;

blade elliptic to narrowly ovate, 1–1.5 cm, surfaces usually viscid-pubescent abaxially, glabrous adaxially.

leaves: petiole short and winged or leaves sessile;

blade spatulate to oblong-ovate, 10–15 cm, surfaces softly viscid-pubescent.
2n

= 48.

= 48.

Nicotiana quadrivalvis

Nicotiana repanda
Phenology Flowering Apr–Oct(–Dec). Flowering Feb–Sep.
Habitat Dry river beds, washes, gravel bars, mesas, plains, burned areas. Moist ground along streams, open areas.
Elevation 0–600(–2000) m. (0–2000(–6600) ft.) 0–800 m. (0–2600 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; TX; Mexico (Nuevo Léon, Tamaulipas, Veracruz); West Indies (Cuba)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Nicotiana repanda occurs along the Gulf Coast and in Texas in southern, central, and the eastern edge of west Texas, in adjacent Mexico, and on the island of Cuba. It overlaps in distribution with N. plumbaginifolia but is easy to distinguish from that species by its pandurate (fiddle-shaped) cauline leaves and longer, thinner flowers.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 14. FNA vol. 14.
Parent taxa Solanaceae > Nicotiana Solanaceae > Nicotiana
Sibling taxa
N. acuminata, N. attenuata, N. clevelandii, N. glauca, N. longiflora, N. obtusifolia, N. plumbaginifolia, N. repanda, N. rustica, N. sylvestris, N. tabacum
N. acuminata, N. attenuata, N. clevelandii, N. glauca, N. longiflora, N. obtusifolia, N. plumbaginifolia, N. quadrivalvis, N. rustica, N. sylvestris, N. tabacum
Synonyms Amphipleis quadrivalvis, Dictyocalyx quadrivalvis, N. bigelovii, N. bigelovii var. wallacei, N. multivalvis, N. plumbaginifolia var. bigelovii, N. quadrivalvis var. bigelovii, Polydiclis quadrivalvis Eucapnia repanda, N. doniana, N. lyrata
Name authority Pursh: Fl. Amer. Sept. 1: 141. (1813) Willdenow in J. G. C. Lehmann: Gen. Nicot. Hist., 40, plate 3. (1818)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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