Habit, Newman area, WA. Image reproduced with permission from Japan Tobacco Inc. from The genus Nicotiana illustrated (1994).

Inflorescence (Tieyon Stn, SA). Photo: W.R. Barker © W.R. Barker

Image reproduced with permission from Japan Tobacco Inc. from The genus Nicotiana illustrated (1994).

Line drawing by B. Osborn showing  attachment to stem of lower leaves, calyx with capsule and shape of  limb of corolla.

Image reproduced with permission from Japan Tobacco Inc. from The genus Nicotiana illustrated (1994).

Image reproduced with permission from Japan Tobacco Inc. from The genus Nicotiana illustrated (1994).

Image reproduced with permission from Japan Tobacco Inc. from The genus Nicotiana illustrated (1994).

Distribution map generated from Australia's Virtual Herbarium, May 2006. Dots outside the main region represent cultivated specimens or incorrect input of information.

Synonymy

Description

Leafy herb to 2 m, densely pubescent, often woolly with glandular and eglandular hairs.  

Leaves mostly cauline, broadly elliptic, the upper ones narrowly elliptic, lanceolate or pandurate, auriculate and stem-clasping at base; lamina up to 35 cm long; lower leaves petiolate, the petiole to 8 cm long; upper leaves sessile.  

Inflorescence panicle-like, usually few-branched; lower bracts occasionally leafy. Calyx 12–30 mm long. Corolla-tube 25–75 mm long, 1–5 mm wide at top of calyx; limb 15–35 mm diam.; lobes obtuse or occasionally shallowly notched. Upper 4 anthers at about the same level, their filaments to 5.5 mm long; filament of the 5th stamen 2–15 mm long, inserted in upper half of corolla-tube or just below middle.  

Capsule ellipsoid to ovoid, 8–16 mm long. Seeds acutely angled or reniform; testa irregularly honeycombed or wrinkled. n=18.

Distribution and ecology

Restricted to ranges of southern N.T. and north-western S.A., growing in pockets of fertile, often sandy, soil, in shelter of rocks on upper slopes.

Notes

Highly prized by Aborigines as chewing tobacco and considered one of the most potent of central Australian species of Nicotiana. See P. Latz, (1996). Bushfires and Bushtucker, Aboriginal Plant Use in Central Australia.  IAD Press, Alice Springs, and D. Symon (2005) Native tobaccos (Solanaceae: Nicotiana spp.) in Australia and their use by Aboriginal peoples in The Beagle 21: 1-10, for further information on this species.

Selected specimens

N.T.: Kings Canyon, P.K. Latz 355 (AD, MEL, NT); Longs Range, P.K. Latz 4215 (CANB, DNA, NT). S.A.: Musgrave Range, 12 Aug. 1973, Wallace (AD).

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Web links

A fact sheet for this species can be downloaded from the SA eFlora site.