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Nicotiana glauca
Also called Wild Tobacco, Glaucous Leaf Tobacco, Tobacco Bush, Coneton, Mexican Tobacco, Mustard Tree, San Juan Tree
Tree tobacco is a fast-growing, shrubby tree from South America that often reaches 2 to 7 m, with bluish-green leaves and yellow tubular flowers. It is an invasive weed in many regions, so it is best grown only where it is legal and controlled.
Nicotiana glauca is a species of flowering plant in the tobacco genus Nicotiana of the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is known by the common name tree tobacco. 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. It resembles Cestrum parqui but differs in the form of leaves and fusion of the outer floral parts. It grows to heights of more than two meters.
Tree tobacco is native to South America but it is now widespread as an introduced species on other continents. It is a common roadside weed in the southwestern United States, and an invasive plant species in California native plant habitats.
Nicotiana glauca can pose a threat to native species by outcompeting them for resources and is classified as an invasive species in many parts of the world. In some management programmes, the beetle Malabris aculeata has been successfully deployed as a biological control agent. Every part of the plant is potentially poisonous to humans and livestock.
The plant is used for a variety of medicinal purposes by Native American groups. The Cahuilla people used leaves interchangeably with other tobacco species in religious rituals and as a poultice to treat swellings, bruises, cuts, wounds, boils, sores, inflamed throat, and swollen glands. It is poisonous to consume either cooked or raw. It contains high doses of the alkaloids anabasine and nicotine such that ingestion of the leaves can be fatal. It is being investigated for use as a biofuel.
Manyflower tobacco · Jasmine tobacco · Nicotiana benthamiana · Debney's Tobacco · Langsdorff's tobacco · Nicotiana mutabilis · Tobacco · Aztec tobacco · South American tobacco · Cultivated tobacco · Tobacco
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Nicotiana glauca by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
