Desert tobacco

Nicotiana glandulosa Buckley; N. multiflora Nuttall ex Torrey; N. palmeri A. Gray; N. trigonophylla Dunal

Herbs, annual or short-lived perennial, without marked basal rosette. Stems branched from base, (slender, brittle), 5–10 dm, viscid-tomentose. Cauline leaves: petiole short and winged or leaves sessile; proximal blades oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, distal blades panduriform to trigonate, 5–20 cm, smaller very near inflorescence, base somewhat clasping, apex acute or acuminate, surfaces densely viscid-pubescent. Inflorescences secund false racemes, occasionally few-branched, somewhat leafy; flowering diurnal. Pedi­cels 0.2–0.5 cm. Flowers: calyx green, cup-shaped, 10-ribbed, 0.8–2 cm, with minute membranous sinuses, pubescent and somewhat rough, lobes triangular to long-triangular, ± unequal, as long or longer than tube, tips slightly recurved; corolla straight, 1.2–3.5 cm (excluding limb), viscid-pubescent externally, tube gray-green, cream, or ± yellowish cream, 0.3–0.6 cm × 2–4 mm, widening to throat 6–12 × 5 mm, glabrous or minutely puberulent within, limb slightly reflexed to spreading, cream or whitish green, pentagonal, 0.6–8 cm diam., lobes broadly triangular and rounded apically, equal; stamens inserted at base of throat, included; filaments unequal, 4 straight, 1.2–3.4 cm, sometimes kneed, extending to corolla mouth, 1 shorter, 1–2 cm, not kneed, curved away from corolla, all slightly pubescent just above insertion point; style straight, just exceeding longest stamens. Capsules broadly ovoid (acute), 0.8–1.1 cm. Fruiting calyces not tearing at sinuses, covering lower 2/3 of capsule. Seeds 0.5 mm. 2n = 24.

Flowering year-round. Rocky or gravelly areas in deserts; 0–2500(–2900) m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., N.Mex., Okla., Tex., Utah; Mexico.