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MEXICAN PLANTS & ANIMALS HOME
Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
from the February 23, 2007 Newsletter with notes from a camping trip to near Camargo, 5500 ft in elevation (1700m) just west of Pinal de Amoles, Querétaro; Newsletter Issued from Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve Headquarters in Jalpan, Querétaro, MÉXICO
TREE TOBACCO
Plenty of Tree Tobacco, NICOTIANA GLAUCA, occurs in this area, a flowering inflorescence seen above. The genus Nicotiana is the same in which the tobacco of cigarette fame is found, so in a sense this is a real tobacco, though the plant doesn't contain nicotine. The species is originally from southern Bolivia and northern Argentina but has vigorously invaded some parts of the US Southwest and other countries -- it's even been found growing wild in North America as far north as Ohio and Maryland. One reason it's invading so many places is that people grow it for its pretty flowers. Here I often see it around people's homes grown as an ornamental, and along streams.
entry dated February 15, 2023, issued from near Tequisquiapan, elevation about 1,900m (6200 ft), Querétaro state, MÉXICO
(~N20.55°, ~W99.89°)
TREE TOBACCO FLOWERS, FRUITS & SEEDS
Here's what a plant looks like nowadays in the heart of the dry season:
This plant bears both flowers and fruits:
Below, a flower has been cut open:
The seeds are tiny when expelled from the capsule-type fruit:
