Nicotiana ( /ˌnɪkɵʃiˈeɪnə/)^[3] is a genus of herbs and shrubs of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) indigenous to North and South America, Australia, south west Africa and the South Pacific. Various Nicotiana species, commonly referred to as tobacco plants, are cultivated and grown to produce tobacco. Of all Nicotiana species, Cultivated Tobacco (N. tabacum) is the most widely planted and is grown worldwide for production of tobacco leaf for cigarettes. The genus is named in honor of Jean Nicot, who in 1561 was the first to present tobacco to the French royal court. Nicotiana germination is usually 2–5 days in 27 °C (81 °F) weather.

Etymology

The word nicotiana (as well as nicotine) was named in honor of Jean Nicot, French ambassador to Portugal, who in 1559 sent it as a medicine to the court of Catherine de' Medici.^[4]

Cultivation

Tobacco plantation

It is most commonly smoked in the form of cigarettes or cigars. Tobacco is native to both American continents and was used by native cultures by around 3000 BC.^{[citation needed]} Employed as an anthelmintic,^[5] it has been smoked, in one form or another, since about 3000 BC.^{[citation needed]} Tobacco has a long history of ceremonial use in Native American cultures. It has played an important role in the political, economic, and cultural history of the United States.

Tobacco plants have been grown and/or harvested by local peoples for a long time. The Takelma for example use N. quadrivalvis, and tobacco is very important to the Aztecs, who consider it one of the sacred herbs of Xochipilli, the "Flower Prince" (also known as Macuilxochitl, "Five Flowers"), a deity of agriculture and especially entheogenic plants. Indeed, the origins of Cultivated Tobacco (N. tabacum) are obscure; it is not known from the wild and appears to be a hybrid between Woodland Tobacco (N. sylvestris), N. tomentosiformis and another species (perhaps N. otophora), deliberately selected by humans a long time ago.^[6]

In modern tobacco farming, Nicotiana seeds are scattered onto the surface of the soil, as their germination is activated by light, then covered in cold frames. In the Colony of Virginia, seedbeds were fertilized with wood ash or animal manure (frequently powdered horse manure). Coyote Tobacco (N. attenuata) of the western U.S. requires burned wood to germinate.^[7] Seedbeds were then covered with branches to protect the young plants from frost damage. These plants were left to grow until around April. Today, in the United States, unlike other countries, Nicotiana is often fertilized with the mineral apatite to partially starve the plant for nitrogen, which changes the taste of the tobacco.

After the plants have reached a certain height, they are transplanted into fields. This was originally done by making a relatively large hole in the tilled earth with a tobacco peg, then placing the small plant in the hole. Various mechanical tobacco planters were invented throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries to automate this process, making a hole, fertilizing it, and guiding a plant into the hole with one motion.

Many species of Nicotiana are also grown as ornamental plants. They are popular vespertines, their sweet-smelling flowers opening in the evening to be visited by hawkmoths and other pollinators. Several tobacco plants have been used as model organisms in genetics. Tobacco BY-2 cells, derived from N. tabacum cultivar 'Bright Yellow-2', are among the most important research tools in plant cytology. Tobacco has played a pioneering role in callus culture research and the elucidation of the mechanism by which kinetin works, laying the groundwork for modern agricultural biotechnology.

Ecology

Tobacco mosaic virus (electron micrograph)

Female Manduca sexta

Despite containing enough nicotine and/or other compounds such as germacrene and anabasine and other piperidine alkaloids (varying between species) to deter most herbivores,^[8] a number of such animals have evolved the ability to feed on Nicotiana species without being harmed. Nonetheless, tobacco is unpalatable to many species and therefore some tobacco plants (chiefly Tree Tobacco, N. glauca) have become established as invasive species in some places.

In the nineteenth century, young tobacco plantings came under increasing attack from flea beetles (Epitrix cucumeris and/or Epitrix pubescens), causing destruction of half the United States tobacco crop in 1876. In the years afterward, many experiments were attempted and discussed to control the flea beetle. By 1880 it was discovered that replacing the branches with a frame covered by thin fabric would effectively protect plants from the beetle. This practice spread until it became ubiquitous in the 1890s.

Lepidoptera whose caterpillars feed on Nicotiana include:

• Dark Sword-grass or Black cutworm, Agrotis ipsilon
• Turnip Moth, Agrotis segetum
• Mouse Moth, Amphipyra tragopoginis
• The Nutmeg, Discestra trifolii
• Endoclita excrescens
• Blackburn's Sphinx Moth, Manduca blackburni
• Tobacco Hornworm, Manduca sexta
• Tomato Hornworm, Manduca quinquemaculata
• Cabbage Moth, Mamestra brassicae
• Angle Shades, Phlogophora meticulosa
• Setaceous Hebrew Character, Xestia c-nigrum

These are mainly Noctuidae and some Sphingidae.

Species

Nicotiana alata

Nicotiana langsdorffii

Nicotiana obtusifolia

Nicotiana × sanderae ornamental cultivar

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v t e

• Nicotiana acaulis Speg.^[9]
• Nicotiana acuminata (Graham) Hook. – Manyflower Tobacco^[9]
• Nicotiana africana Merxm.^[9]
• Nicotiana alata Link & Otto – Winged Tobacco, Jasmine Tobacco, Tanbaku (Persian)^[9]
• Nicotiana ameghinoi Speg.^[9]
• Nicotiana amplexicaulis N. T. Burb.^[9]
• Nicotiana arentsii Goodsp.^[9]
• Nicotiana attenuata Torrey ex S. Watson – Coyote Tobacco^[9]
• Nicotiana azambujae L. B. Smith & Downs^[9]
• Nicotiana benavidesii Goodsp.^[9]
• Nicotiana benthamiana Domin^[9]
• Nicotiana bonariensis Lehm.^[9]
• Nicotiana burbidgeae Symon^[9]
• Nicotiana cavicola N. T. Burb.^[9]
• Nicotiana clevelandii A. Gray^[9]
• Nicotiana cordifolia Phil.^[9]
• Nicotiana corymbosa J. Rémy^[9]
• Nicotiana cutleri D'Arcy^[9]
• Nicotiana debneyi Domin^[9]
• Nicotiana excelsior (J. M. Black) J. M. Black^[9]
• Nicotiana exigua H.-M. Wheeler^[9]
• Nicotiana forgetiana Hemsl.^[9]
• Nicotiana fragrans Hooker^[9]
• Nicotiana glauca Graham – Tree Tobacco, Brazilian Tree Tobacco, Shrub Tobacco, Mustard Tree^[9]
• Nicotiana glutinosa L.^[9]
• Nicotiana goodspeedii H.-M. Wheeler^[9]
• Nicotiana gossei Domin^[9]
• Nicotiana hesperis N. T. Burb.^[9]
• Nicotiana heterantha Kenneally & Symon^[9]
• Nicotiana ingulba J. M. Black^[9]
• Nicotiana kawakamii Y. Ohashi^[9]
• Nicotiana knightiana Goodsp.^[9]
• Nicotiana langsdorffii Weinm.^[9]
• Nicotiana linearis Phil.^[9]
• Nicotiana longibracteata Phil.^[9]
• Nicotiana longiflora Cav.^[9]
• Nicotiana maritima H.-M. Wheeler^[9]
• Nicotiana megalosiphon Van Huerck & Müll. Arg.^[9]
• Nicotiana miersii J. Rémy^[9]
• Nicotiana mutabilis Stehmann & Samir^[9]
• Nicotiana nesophila I. M. Johnston^[9]
• Nicotiana noctiflora Hook.^[9]
• Nicotiana nudicaulis S. Watson^[9]
• Nicotiana occidentalis H.-M. Wheeler^[9]
• Nicotiana obtusifolia M. Martens & Galeotti (previously designated N. trigonophylla) – Desert Tobacco, Punche, "Tabaquillo"^[9]
• Nicotiana otophora Griseb.^[9]
• Nicotiana paa Mart. Crov.^[9]
• Nicotiana palmeri A. Gray^[9]
• Nicotiana paniculata L.^[9]
• Nicotiana pauciflora J. Rémy^[9]
• Nicotiana petuniodes (Griseb.) Millán.^[9]
• Nicotiana plumbaginifolia Viv.^[9]
• Nicotiana quadrivalvis Pursh – replaces the following older classifications: N. multivalvis Lindl., N. plumbaginifolia Viv. var. bigelovii Torrey, N. bigelovii (Torrey) S. Watson.^[9]
• Nicotiana raimondii J. F. Macbr.^[9]
• Nicotiana repanda Willd. – Fiddleleaf Tobacco^[9]
• Nicotiana rosulata (S. Moore) Domin^[9]
• Nicotiana rotundifolia Lindl.^[9]
• Nicotiana rustica L. – Aztec Tobacco, Mapacho^[9]
• Nicotiana setchellii Goodsp.^[9]
• Nicotiana simulans N. T. Burb.^[9]
• Nicotiana solanifolia Walp.^[9]
• Nicotiana spegazzinii Millán^[9]
• Nicotiana stenocarpa H.-M. Wheeler^[9]
• Nicotiana stocktonii Brandegee^[9]
• Nicotiana suaveolens Lehm. – Australian Tobacco^[9]
• Nicotiana sylvestris Speg. & Comes – South American Tobacco, Woodland Tobacco^[9]
• Nicotiana tabacum L. – Commercial tobacco grown for the production of cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, etc.^[9]
• Nicotiana thrysiflora Bitter ex Goodsp.^[9]
• Nicotiana tomentosa Ruiz & Pav.^[9]
• Nicotiana tomentosiformis Goodsp.^[9]
• Nicotiana truncata D. E. Symon^[9]
• Nicotiana umbratica N. T. Burb.^[9]
• Nicotiana undulata Ruiz & Pav.^[9]
• Nicotiana velutina H.-M. Wheeler^[9]
• Nicotiana wigandioides Koch & Fintelm.^[9]
• Nicotiana wuttkei Clarkson & Symon^[9]

Manmade hybrids

• Nicotiana × didepta N. debneyi × N. tabacum^[10]
• Nicotiana × digluta N. glutinosa × N. tabacum^[11]
• Nicotiana × sanderae Hort. ex Wats. N. alata × N. forgetiana^[12]

Formerly placed here

• Petunia axillaris (Lam.) Britton et al. (as N. axillaris Lam.)^[13]

See also

• Agroinfiltration
• Edgar Anderson
• Indian tobacco
• Jamestown, Virginia
• John Rolfe
• List of plants poisonous to equines
• Pectinesterase
• Pipe-weed
• Turkish tobacco

References

Notes

Bibliography