7434.000 Nicotiana L. - Tobaccos

Unarmed herbs, shrubs or small trees. Inflorescence a terminal panicle-like cyme. Calyx 5-lobed, much shorter than the corolla tube, usually somewhat accrescent in fruit. Corolla white, yellow, pink, red or purplish; tubular with a short limb. Stamens 5; anthers included (in ours), dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Fruit a capsule with a large number of minute seeds; capsule enclosed by a persistent papery calyx.

Derivation of name: after Jean Nicot, who introduced tobacco to France in the late 16th century.

Worldwide: 67 species in America (mainly Andean S America and Mexico), S Pacific islands, Australia and one in Namibia.

Zimbabwe: 3 cultivated taxa.