Cleveland’s tobacco

Nicotiana greeneana Rose

Herbs, annual, from basal rosette. Stems single or with few lateral branches (several robust basal branches on older plants), 2–6 dm, villous and viscid-pubescent. Rosette leaves: petiole length 1/8–1/2 blade; blade broadly elliptic to rhombic-ovate, 6–20 cm, surfaces softly viscid-pubescent. Cauline leaves sessile to short-petiolate; blade ovate, 1–6 cm, becoming smaller distally, (fleshy), apex acute, surfaces scabrous with persistent swollen bases of short, patent trichomes. Inflorescences unbranched, few-flowered, densely leafy; flowering crepuscular. Pedicels 0.2–0.5 cm. Flowers: calyx uniformly green with poorly developed membranous sinuses, 0.8–1 cm, viscid-pubescent, lobes subulate, unequal (4 as long as tube, 1 longer); corolla straight, 1.4–2 cm (excluding limb), minutely viscid-pubescent externally, tube white or tinged with purple externally, 0.3–0.4 cm × 1 mm, widening to throat 10–17 × 2–4 mm (oblique, often bent at junction of tube and throat), glabrous or minutely puberulent within, limb spreading, white, pentagonal to stellate, 0.6–0.8(–1) cm diam., lobes broadly triangular, unequal, acute; stamens inserted at base of throat, extending nearly to corolla mouth; filaments 1–1.5 cm, unequal, 1 much shorter (curved), glabrous; style straight, just exceeding 4 long stamens. Capsules ovoid, 0.4–0.6 cm. Fruiting calyces not tearing at sinuses, cov­ering capsule. Seeds 0.5 mm. 2n = 48.

Flowering Feb–Jul. Sandy areas, dunes, sea cliffs, washes, desert slopes; 0–500 m; Ariz., Calif.; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora).