Coyote tobacco (Nicotiana attenuata)
Description
“Pet poisonous” – Toxic parts: leaves Nicotiana attenuata is a species of wild tobacco known by the common name coyote tobacco. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Texas and northern Mexico, where it grows in many types of habitat. It is a glandular and sparsely hairy annual herb exceeding a meter in maximum height. The leaf blades may be 10 centimetres (4 in) long, the lower ones oval and the upper narrower in shape, and are borne on petioles. The inflorescence bears several flowers with pinkish or greenish white tubular throats 2 to 3 centimetres (4⁄5 to 1 1⁄5 in) long, their bases enclosed in pointed sepals. The flower face has five mostly white lobes. The fruit is a capsule about 1 centimetre (1⁄2 in) long. Nicotiana attenuata has been utilized as an ecological model species since 1994, thanks in large part to its diverse interactions with a host of different plants, insects and microorganisms in its native habitat. Work at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, has been instrumental in integrating a toolbox of genomic, ecological, and analytical tools alongside field work in the Great Basin Desert in order to study the interactions of N. attenuata in its native environment.
Taxonomic tree
-
Domain: Eukarya
-
-
Kingdom: Plantae
-
-
Phylum:
-
-
Class: Magnoliopsida
-
-
Order: Solanales
-
-
Family: Solanaceae
-
-
Genus: Nicotiana
-
-
-
-
-
-
