Flowering Tobacco

(Solanaceae - Nightshade Family)

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• Form
  • medium- to large-sized herbaceous annual
  • maturing at 1'-3' tall by 8"-18" wide, depending upon cultivar
  • upright oval growth habit

• Culture
  • full sun to partial sun
  • prefers moist, well drained soils of average fertility in full sun, but is adaptable to dry soils once established (although wilting of the foliage may occur)
  • propagated by seeds
  • Nightshade Family, with several minor cosmetic disease and pest problems, usually of ornamental insignificance
  • commonly available in flats or seed packets

• Foliage
  • 6"-12" long for the basal rosette of leaves, with smaller leaves in an alternate fashion progressing up the flowering stalk
  • medium green, ovate, thick, slightly wavy to crinkled, very pubescent and sticky, and scented when bruised

• Flowers
  • solid colors of pink, red, lavender, lime, yellow, and creamy-white
  • flowers are on thin pedicels, in terminal and lateral open inflorescences, with a long thin corolla tube beneath the fused five petals of the spreading corolla
  • flowers have a slight fragrance, enhanced at the time of evening dew

• Fruits
  • ornamentally insignificant seed capsules

• Twigs
  • not applicable

• Trunk
  • not applicable

• ID Summary
  • basal rosette of large, ovate, pubescent, pungent leaves beneath a much-branched vertical flowering stalk, having five-petaled, tubular, slightly fragrant flowers in solid shades of pink, red, lime, and white

• Function
  • upright annual for beds, borders, planters, and entranceways

• Texture
  • medium to bold texture, depending upon mature size
  • thick to average density, depending upon mature size

• Assets
  • Summer-long blossoms of solid colors (including lime) with a subtle fragrance
  • heat and drought tolerant

• Liabilities
  • larger cultivars (now hard to obtain) sometimes display flowers in a downward-facing position

• Habitat
  • annual that is killed with early frosts
  • native to Brazil

• Alternates
  • annuals with slightly fragrant or scented flowers (Lobularia maritima, Petunia x hybrida, Tagetes patula, etc.)
  • annuals for sunny spots with a vertical growth habit, for middle- or back-of-the-bed position (Cleome hasslerana, Cosmos, Salvia splendens, Tagetes erecta, etc.)

• Variants
  • several series (usually sold in mixed colors) or individual cultivars exist, bred for compactness, floral color, and earliness to bloom
    • Nicotiana alata 'Domino Series' - to 1' tall, in many floral colors
    • Nicotiana alata 'Nicki Series' - to 2' tall, in many floral colors

NOTES

• Translation
  • Nicotiana is named after Jean Nicot, a 16th century Frenchman who introduced the tobacco plant (Nicotiana tabacum) to France.
  • alata translates as "winged", referring to the petioles of the species form having lateral extensions, which is less obvious in the compact modern cultivars.

• Purpose
  • Flowering Tobacco is a vertical annual with an array of solid-colored flowers, with modern cultivars much more compact and densely flowering that the species form.

• Summary
  • Nicotiana alata is known as a heat-tolerant, vividly-flowering upright annual, with solid-colored inflorescences in shades of red, pink, lavendar, white, yellow, and lime.