Today's Nature Post features Tobacco!

Tobacco, Nicotiana, is a group of herbaceous plants and shrubs that belong to the Solanaceae family. This family is also known as the Nightshade family and includes plants such as potatoes, peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes. The Tobacco plant has it's origins widespread throughout Australia, the South pacific, the Americas, and portions of Africa. It has become cultivated all over the world for it's leaves as well as some species being produced for decorative uses. There are 67 species of Nicotiana with a handful of cultivars, or man-made, hybrids. These plants are noted for their attractive foliage such as large, green leaves and trumpet-shaped flowers in colors including white, pink, red, and green. Easy to grow, they prefer moist soil and can grow over 10 feet tall. It will bloom around August with the blossoms mostly blooming in the evening and night. Nicotiana, belonging to the Nightshade family, has developed a variety of chemical compounds such as those with insecticidal properties like geracrene and anabasine as well as toxins such as nicotine. These deter creatures from eating the plant. Some plants, such as the Lime Green Tobacco, possesses blossoms with sweet-smelling scents that lure evening creatures such as Hawkmoths to pollinate them. Other variations of these plants are considered to be invasive species.

Tobacco plants, also known as Taaba or Tabak, is considered a masculine plant associated with Mars and fire. It is connected strongly with healing and purification with beliefs that smoking it allowed one to communicate with spirits. Southern Native American tribes consider this a sacred plant and used it for ritual purposes such as drinking tobacco juice to induce visions. Hospitality was shown to visitors by sharing tobacco to smoke, as the sign of a beginning ritual, to mark contracts, or at the beginning of journeys and wars. When traveling on a boat, throwing tobacco into the water is said to please the Gods while burning it purifies the area of spirits good and bad. It can also be used for smudging or as a substitute for other plants within the nightshade family. Although toxic and not suggested to eat, a poultice of wet leaves can be applied to stings to reduce swelling and itching. This plant can also be used to create a strong tea with the leaves which can be sprayed as an insect repellent although it is important to wash any plants that will be harvested after spraying.