[Illustration: Nicotiana trigonophylla
Nicotiana glauca]
Common Names: DESERT-TOBACCO, TREE-TOBACCO
Arizona and Texas deserts: (_Nicotiana glauca_). Pale yellow. All
year.
California desert: (_Nicotiana trigonophylla_). Green-yellow. All
year.
Potato family. Size: Tree-tobacco (_N. glauca_) up to 12 feet.
Desert-tobacco, 1 to 3 feet high.
Several species of wild tobacco are found in the desert. Of these,
Tree-tobacco is conspicuous because of its rank growth, its large
leaves, and the spectacular clusters of tubular, yellow flowers. In
addition to nicotine, Tree-tobacco contains an alkaloid, anabasine. This
conspicuous plant occurs in moist locations below 3,000 feet elevation
and bears flowers throughout the entire year. Although now thoroughly
naturalized in the Southwest, it is a native of South America.
Desert-tobacco, sometimes perennial in southwestern Arizona, is a
dark-green herb common and widespread throughout the desert areas of the
Southwest. It is not nearly as noticeable as its larger relative
although it, too, blossoms the year around. Flowers are a pale yellow,
almost greenish-white. It provides dense ground cover in rocky canyons
and along desert washes.
Leaves, which are somewhat bad smelling, were smoked (and still are
during ceremonials) by the Yuma and Havasupai Indians who are reported
to have cleared land, burned the brush, and scattered the seeds of
Desert-tobacco in an effort to promote the growth of strong plants with
many large leaves.