Coyote tobacco

Herbs, annual, robust, from basal rosette. Stems single or with few weak lateral branches, 5–20 dm, viscid-pubescent or glabrate with few hairs with swollen bases. Rosette leaves: petiole length shorter than or almost equaling blade (2–3 cm); blade elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 5–10 cm, surfaces viscid-pubescent. Cauline leaves: petiole length to 1/2 blade, distal leaves sessile; blade lanceolate to linear, progressively narrower distally, 2–8(–10.5) cm, apex acute to acuminate, surfaces viscid-pubescent or glabrate. Inflorescences unbranched or with few short lateral branches, somewhat leafy; flowering crepuscular (early morning). Pedicels 0.2–0.4 cm. Flowers: calyx uniformly green or with weakly developed veins, 0.6–1 cm, densely viscid-pubescent (hairs with swollen bases), lobes narrowly triangular, shorter than tube, unequal; corolla straight, 2–3.5 cm (excluding limb), viscid-puberulent externally, tube creamy white or tinged with purple-green or gray-green, 0.5–0.7 cm × 1.5–2 mm, widening to throat 2–3 × 5 mm (asymmetrically dilated distally), glabrous or minutely puberulent within, limb spreading or slightly reflexed, white or cream, pentagonal to ± circular and often asymmetrically spreading, 0.4–0.8 cm diam., lobes shallow and rounded or obtuse, broadly triangular (proximal lobes reflexed); stamens inserted near base of throat, included; filaments unequal, 4 of 3 cm (2 of these slightly longer), 1 shorter, 1.5–2 cm, glabrous or minutely pubescent proximally; style straight, just shorter than longest stamen pair. Capsules ovoid, 0.8–1.2 cm. Fruiting calyces not tearing at sinuses, covering to 1/2 of mature capsule. Seeds 0.8 mm. 2n = 24.

Flowering May–Nov. Sandy slopes, banks and rocky outcrops, disturbed places, often appearing after fire; (50–)1000–2600 m; B.C.; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., N.Mex., Oreg., Tex., Utah, Wash., Wyo.; Mexico (Baja California, Sinaloa, Sonora).

Nicotiana attenuata is the most common species of the genus in the Great Basin, and often forms large colonies after fires and other disturbance. It has been the subject of intensive study over many years by the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology at the Lytle Ranch Preserve in southwestern Utah (for example, C. Diezel et al. 2011; D. Kessler et al. 2015). There are some records of its use by Native American peoples as a smoking or chewing tobacco; it has also been reported as a medicinal plant used by the Zuni people (M. C. Stevenson 1915). Nicotiana torreyana A. Nelson & J. F. Macbride is an illegitimate name that has been applied to this species.