Herbs or undershrubs, rarely evergreen shrubs or small trees, usually with glutinous hairs
Leaves simple, entire or sinuate
Flowers in terminal panicles or long, unilateral, bracteate or ebracteate racemes, rarely solitary and axillary; white, yellow, greenish or pink
Calyx 5-fid, ovoid or tubular-campanulate
Corolla funnel- or salver-shaped; tube long, cylindrical or slightly ventricose; limb equal or oblique; lobes 5, induplicate, patent
Stamens 5, arising below middle of corolla tube, included or exserted, more or less unequal; filaments filiform; anthers ovoid or oblong, deeply 2-lobed; thecae parallel, dehiscing longitudinally
Ovary 2- or rarely 4-locular; style filiform; stigma dilated, shortly and widely 2-lobed; ovules many
Fruit a 2- or rarely 4-locular capsule, dehiscing to the middle or lower by 2-fid valves
Seeds many, small, scarcely compressed, granular; embryo straight or more or less curved, cotyledons semiterete
x = 6, 8, 9, 10 (5, 7, 11, 19, 23) (aneuploids, high polyploidy, B-chromosomes)
Nomenclature:
Nicotiana L.
Linnaeus: 180 (1753)
Wright: 119 (1904)
Henderson & Anderson: 270 (1966)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 67, mainly America
Southern Africa: Species 3 naturalised, and 1 endemic to Namibia: Nicotiana africana Merxm.
References:
HENDERSON, M. & ANDERSON, J.G. 1966. Common weeds in South Africa. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 37
LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum, edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
WRIGHT, C.H. 1904. Solanaceae. Flora capensis 4,2
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Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
The system is still under development, so you may find a few bugs/issues. If you do, please report it via the error reporting button available in various sections of the website or provide us with any useful feedback you may have via the ‘Give us feedback’ option available in the sidebar menu. You can create a free account for yourself by clicking on the user profile icon which will take you through to the login page. Here you can choose the ‘Create an account’ option or simply fill in your details if you have an account already. Having an account on Biodiversity Advisor will provide users with free access to biodiversity resources.
In future, Team SANBI will be able to log in using their day-to-day login details, BGIS users will be able to use their existing accounts and details, and general users will be able to log in using their LinkedIn profile, but for now you will need to create an account.
