Nicotiana sylvestris

South american tobacco

Family: Solanaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

South american tobacco is a naturalized perennial found in northern Coast Ranges and San Francisco Bay Area in open, disturbed areas and fields at elevations below 200 meters. Flowering from July to October, this plant produces white to cream-colored flowers in nodding clusters with star-shaped corollas 15 to 20 millimeters in diameter. Growing 1 to 2 meters tall with glandular-puberulent stems, it develops widely branching foliage with large elliptic to ovate leaves that have winged petioles. Its leaves range from 5 to 50 centimeters long, with basal leaves widely elliptic and lower stem leaves tapering to winged leaf stalks. The fruit is 12 to 18 millimeters long with tiny seeds approximately 0.5 millimeters in size.

Habitat: Open, disturbed areas, fields

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: < 200 m

Bioregions: n CCo, SnFrB

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.