Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annuals to 60 cm tall, stems slender, herbage with glandular-pubescent surfaces.

Leaves: Alternate, lowermost leaves petioled, elliptic to lance-ovate or ovate, upper leaves becoming sessile and lanceolate, blades 3-18 cm long.

Flowers: White or greenish-white and showy, corollas salverform with narrow throats and 5 rounded lobes, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, the tube 15-20 mm long, the limb 8-10 mm wide, calyxes 8-10 mm long with 4 very unequal, linear lobes, stamens unequal, filaments attached below the middle of the corolla tube, infloresences subtended by linear to lanceolate bracts bracts to 30 mm long.

Fruits: Capsule 4-6 mm long with 2-5 chambers, the calyx enlarging to incompletely surround the fruit at maturity. Seeds many, minute, with angled edges.

Ecology: Found in sandy washes, in scrub communities, to 1,500 ft (457 m); flowering February-June.

Distribution: Arizona, California; Mexico.

Notes: The showy white campanulate flowers with rounded lobes and narrow throats, conspicuously unequal, linear-lanceolate calyx lobes, annual duration, and glandular-pubescent herbage help to distinguish this species. Jepson notes this genus is extremely toxic to cattle. Look for this species in western Arizona, noted by Kearney and Peebles to be frequent in southern Yuma county. Distinguished from N. attenuata by the calyx lobes with are narrower and not all the same length within a calyx. (triangular and all the same length in N. attenuata)the stem leaves mostly sessile (mostly on petioles in N. attenuata) and corollas 1-2 cm long (2-4 cm in N. attenuata). N. obtusifolia is common in the low elevation deserts; it is distinguished by its leaves which are clasp the stem, and its hairy corollas (corollas glabrous or very sparsely pubescent in this species).

Ethnobotany: Infusion of leaves used as an emetic, poultice of leaves applied to cuts, bruises, swellings and other wounds, leaf smoke blown into the ear and covered with a warm pad for earaches, also leaves chewed, smoked or used in a drinkable decoction, and plants used by shamans to control rain, increase crop production, divining and to improve health of community or to drive away malevolent powers, leaves smoked as part of a hunting ritual or by travelers to clear away all danger and ensure blessing from spiritual guides.

Etymology: Nicotiana is named for Jean Nicot (1530-1600), French ambassador to Portugal and the person supposedly responsible for introducing tobacco into France about 1560, also author of one of the first French language dictionaries, and clevelandii is named after Daniel Cleveland (1838-1929), an authority on ferns, lawyer, and botanical collector, who during the course of his collecting, rediscovered all the plants of the San Diego area that had been found only once.

Synonyms: None

Editor: LCrumbacher2012