Common Name: NIGHTSHADE FAMILY
Habit: Annual to shrub. Leaf: generally simple, generally alternate, generally petioled; stipules 0; blade entire to deeply lobed. Inflorescence: various. Flower: bisexual; calyx lobes generally 5; corolla +- radial, cylindric to rotate, lobes generally 5; stamens 5, on corolla tube, alternate lobes; ovary superior, generally 2-chambered, style 1. Fruit: berry, loculicidal or septicidal capsule, [(drupe)], 2--5-chambered.
Genera In Family: 75 genera, 3000 species: worldwide, especially +- tropics; many alien weeds in California; many cultivated for food, drugs, or ornamental (potato, tomato, peppers, tobacco, petunia). Toxicity: many TOXIC. Note: Nicandra physalodes (L.) Gaertn. is a waif.
eFlora Treatment Author: Michael H. Nee
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: TOBACCO
Habit: Annual to small tree. Leaf: +- basal or not; margin entire, +- wavy or not. Inflorescence: raceme or panicle, terminal; lower bracts leaf-like. Flower: calyx 5-lobed, +- enlarging, not fully enclosing fruit; corolla generally radial, generally funnel-shaped to salverform; stamens 5, equal or 1 smaller. Fruit: septicidal capsule. Seed: many, minute, angled.
Species In Genus: +- 60 species: generally America; Nicotiana tabacum L. widely cultivated, tobacco of commerce. Etymology: (J. Nicot, said to have introduced tobacco to Eur, 1530--1600) Toxicity: Seriously TOXIC to livestock.
Unabridged Reference: Goodspeed 1954 Chron Bot 16:1--536