Tree Tobacco

Tree tobacco, a shrub or small tree with yellow, slender, tubular flowers, is a naturalized member of the Southern California plant community.

Imported from Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia, tree tobacco (Nicotiana glauca) is conspicuous along roadsides, on slopes and in washes below 3,000 feet.

Tree tobacco has few branches and grows rapidly to about 26 feet.

Flowers spread on the tree’s slender limbs. The blooms, which appear from April through November, are 1 to two inches long. The flowers of the Nicotiana genus flare at the ends into five pointed lobes, often opening at night and on cloudy days.

Leaves of the tree tobacco are gray-green, ovate and smooth, measuring two to seven inches long. Leaves and stems are sticky.

Pictured here is tree tobacco growing in the Santa Monica Mountains.

There are about 70 species of Nicotiana , a member of the nightshade family. Like other species in the genus, tree tobacco contains the highly toxic alkaloid nicotine.

Commercial tobacco is made from Nicotiana tabacum. Wild tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), also a South American native, is found in the eastern United States. It was grown by the Indians for smoking.