Nicotiana is a
genusIn biology, a genus is a taxonomic unit used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender" , cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin" ..In addition, genus is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy In biology, a genus (plural:...
of
herbA herb is a plant that is valued for flavor, scent, or other qualities. Herbs are used in cooking, as medicines, and for spiritual purposes....
s and
shrubA shrub or bush is a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall. A large number of plants can be either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
s of the nightshade
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus...
(
SolanaceaeThe Solanaceae is a family of flowering plants that contains a number of important agricultural plants as well as many toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear...
) indigenous to
NorthNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
and
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, south west
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
and the
South PacificOceania is a geographical, often geopolitical, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The term "Oceania" was coined in 1831 by French explorer Dumont d'Urville...
. Various
Nicotiana speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
, commonly referred to as
tobacco plants, are cultivated and grown to produce
tobaccoTobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines. In consumption it most commonly appears in the forms of smoking, chewing, snuffing, or...
. Of all
Nicotiana species, Cultivated Tobacco (
N. tabacum) is the most widely planted and is grown worldwide for production of tobacco leaf for
cigaretteA cigarette is a product consumed through smoking and manufactured out of cured and finely cut tobacco leaves and reconstituted tobacco, often combined with other additives, then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder...
s.
Nicotiana is a
genusIn biology, a genus is a taxonomic unit used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender" , cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin" ..In addition, genus is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy In biology, a genus (plural:...
of
herbA herb is a plant that is valued for flavor, scent, or other qualities. Herbs are used in cooking, as medicines, and for spiritual purposes....
s and
shrubA shrub or bush is a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall. A large number of plants can be either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
s of the nightshade
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus...
(
SolanaceaeThe Solanaceae is a family of flowering plants that contains a number of important agricultural plants as well as many toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear...
) indigenous to
NorthNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
and
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, south west
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
and the
South PacificOceania is a geographical, often geopolitical, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The term "Oceania" was coined in 1831 by French explorer Dumont d'Urville...
. Various
Nicotiana speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
, commonly referred to as
tobacco plants, are cultivated and grown to produce
tobaccoTobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines. In consumption it most commonly appears in the forms of smoking, chewing, snuffing, or...
. Of all
Nicotiana species, Cultivated Tobacco (
N. tabacum) is the most widely planted and is grown worldwide for production of tobacco leaf for
cigaretteA cigarette is a product consumed through smoking and manufactured out of cured and finely cut tobacco leaves and reconstituted tobacco, often combined with other additives, then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder...
s. The genus is named in honor of
Jean NicotJean Nicot was a French diplomat and scholar.Born in Nîmes, in the south of France, he was French ambassador in Lisbon, Portugal from 1559 to 1561....
, who in 1561 was the first to present tobacco to the French royal court. Nicotiana germination is usually 2–5 days in 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Etymology
The word
nicotiana (as well as
nicotineNicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants which constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots, and accumulating in the leaves...
) was named in honor of
Jean NicotJean Nicot was a French diplomat and scholar.Born in Nîmes, in the south of France, he was French ambassador in Lisbon, Portugal from 1559 to 1561....
, French ambassador to Portugal, who in 1559 sent it as a medicine to the court of Catherine de Medici.
Cultivation
It is most commonly
smoked Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the vapors either tasted or inhaled. The practice began as early as 5000–3000 BC. Many civilizations burnt incense during religious rituals, which was later adopted for pleasure or as a social tool. Tobacco was introduced to the old world...
in the form of
cigaretteA cigarette is a product consumed through smoking and manufactured out of cured and finely cut tobacco leaves and reconstituted tobacco, often combined with other additives, then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder...
s or
cigarA cigar is a tightly rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Sumatra, Philippines, and the...
s.
Tobacco has been growing on both American continents since about 6000 BC and was used by native cultures by around 3000 BC. Employed as an
anthelminticAnthelmintics or antihelminthics are drugs that expel parasitic worms from the body, by either stunning or killing them. They may also be called vermifuges or vermicides .-Pharmaceutical classes:...
, it has been smoked, in one form or another, since about 3000 BC. Tobacco has a long history of ceremonial use in
Native AmericanThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples...
culture. It has played an important role in the political, economic, and cultural history of the United States of America.
Tobacco plants were long grown and/or harvested by local peoples. The
TakelmaThe Takelma were a Native American people that lived in the Rogue Valley of interior southwest Oregon, with most of their villages sited along the Rogue River. The name Takelma means Along the River.-History:...
for example utilized
N. bigelovii, and tobacco was very important to the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Often the term...
s who considered it one of the
sacred herbsThe ancient Aztecs employed a variety of entheogenic plants and animals within their society. The various species have been identified through their depiction on murals, vases, and other objects...
of
Xochipillithumb|300px|right| Image of Xochipilli.Xochipilli was the god of art, Sports, Music, dance, flowers, maize, and song in Aztec mythology. His name contains the Nahuatl words xochitl and pilli , and hence means "flower prince"...
, the "Flower Prince" (also known as
Macuilxochitl, "Five Flowers"), a deity of
agricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
and especially psychoactive plants. Indeed, the origins of Cultivated Tobacco (
N. tabacum) are obscure; it is not known from the wild and appears to be a hybrid between Woodland Tobacco (
N. sylvestris),
N. tomentosiformisNicotiana tomentosiformis is a perennial herbaceous plant. It is a wild species of tobacco native to the Yungas Valley region in the eastern piedmont of the Andes Mountains, primarily in Bolivia....
and another species (perhaps
N. otophoraNicotiana otophora is a perennial herbaceous plant. It is a wild species of tobacco native to the Andes Mountains of Bolivia and Argentina....
), deliberately selected by humans a long time ago.
In modern tobacco farming,
Nicotiana seedA seed , referred to as a kernel in some plants, is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s are scattered onto the surface of the
soilSoil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics. It is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and...
, as their
germinationGermination is the process in which a seed or spore emerges from a period of dormancy. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm. However, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, for example the growth of hyphae from fungal...
is activated by light. In colonial
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
, seedbeds were fertilized with wood ash or animal
manureManure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen that is trapped by bacteria in the soil...
(frequently powdered
horseThe horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
manure).
Coyote tobacco of the western U.S. requires burned wood to germinate. Seedbeds were then covered with branches to protect the young plants from frost
damageDamage may refer to:In gaming:* Damage Incorporated, a computer game for Mac and Windows made by Paranoid Productions in 1998* Quad damage, a powerup in the first-person shooter computer game series Quake...
. These plants were left to grow until around April. Today, in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, unlike other countries,
Nicotiana is often fertilized with the mineral
apatiteApatite is a group of phosphate minerals, usually referring to hydroxyapatite, fluorapatite, chlorapatite and bromapatite, named for high concentrations of OH
−, F
−, Cl
− or...
in order to partially starve the plant for
nitrogenNitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere.Many industrially important...
, which changes the taste of the tobacco.
After the plants have reached a certain height, they are transplanted into fields. This was originally done by making a relatively large hole in the tilled earth with a tobacco peg, then placing the small plant in the hole. Various mechanical tobacco planters were invented throughout the late 19th and early 20th century to automate this process, making a hole, fertilizing it, and guiding a plant into the hole with one motion.
Many species of
Nicotiana are also grown as
ornamental plantOrnamental plants are typically grown in the flower garden or as house plants. Most commonly they are grown for the display of their flowers. Other common ornamental features include leaves, scent, fruit, stem and bark. In some cases, unusual features may be considered ornamental, such as the...
s. They are popular
vespertineVespertine is a term used in the life sciences to indicate something of, relating to, or occurring in the evening. In botany, a vespertine flower is one which opens or blooms in the evening. In zoology, the term is used for a creature that becomes active in the evening, such as bats and owls...
s, their sweet-smelling flowers opening in the evening to be visited by hawkmoths and other
pollinatorA pollinator is the biotic agent that moves pollen from the male anthers of a flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish fertilization or syngamy of the female gamete in the ovule of the flower by the male gamete from the pollen grain...
s. Several tobacco plants have been used as
model organismA model organism is a species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the organism model will provide insight into the workings of other organisms...
s in
geneticsGenetics, , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding...
.
Tobacco BY-2 cellsTobacco BY-2 cells is cell line of plant cells, which was established from a callus induced on a seedling of Nicotiana tabacum cv. BY-2 .-Overview:...
, derived from
N. tabacum cultivarA cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because of desired characteristics; it is usually distinct from similar plants and when propagated it retains those characteristics....
'Bright Yellow-2', are among the most important research tools in plant
cytologyCytology means "the study of cells".Cytology is that branch of life science, which deals with the study of cells in terms of structure, function and chemistry.Based on usage it can refer to:...
. Tobacco has played a pioneering role in
callusIn biological research and biotechnology, a callus of cells is a mass of undifferentiated cells. In plant biology, callus cells are those cells that cover a plant wound.-Design:...
culture research and the elucidation of the mechanism by which
kinetinKinetin is a kind of cytokinin, a class of plant hormone that promotes cell division. Kinetin was originally isolated by Miller and Skoog et al. as a compound from autoclaved herring sperm DNA that had cell division-promoting activity. It was given the name kinetin because of its ability to induce...
works, laying the groundwork for modern agricultural
biotechnologyBiotechnology is technology based on biology, agriculture, food science, and medicine. Modern use of the term usually refers to genetic engineering as well as cell- and tissue culture technologies...
.
Pathogens
Despite containing enough nicotine and/or other compounds such as
germacreneGermacrene, or occasionally germacrane, refers to a subset of volatile organic hydrocarbons, specifically, sesquiterpenes. Germacrenes are typically produced in a number plant species for their antimicrobial and insecticidal properties, though they also play a role as insect pheromones...
and
anabasineAnabasine is a pyridine alkaloid found in the Tree Tobacco plant, a close relative of the common tobacco plant . Chemically, it is similar to nicotine...
and other
piperidinePiperidine is an organic compound with the molecular formula
5NH. This heterocyclic amine consists of a six-membered ring containing five methylene units and one nitrogen atom...
alkaloids (varying between species) to deter most
herbivoreA herbivore is an animal that is adapted to eat plants and not meat.Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism consumes principally autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria....
s, a number of such animals have
evolveEvolve may refer to:*Evolve, as in Evolution.*Evolve on The History Channel*Evolve Festival, an annual music and cultural festival held in Nova Scotia, Canada.*Evolve Cars, an after-market manufacturer of sport-parts for Volvo cars....
d the ability to feed on
Nicotiana species without being harmed. Nonetheless, tobacco is unpalatable to many species and therefore some tobacco plants (chiefly Tree Tobacco,
N. glauca) have become established as invasive weeds in some places.
In the nineteenth century, young tobacco plantings came under increasing attack from
flea beetleFlea beetles is a general name applied to the small, jumping beetles of the leaf beetle family . They make up the tribe Alticini, which is a part of the subfamily Galerucinae, though they were historically classified as a subfamily in their own right...
s (
Epitrix cucumeris and/or
Epitrix pubescens), causing destruction of half the United States tobacco crop in 1876. In the years afterward, many experiments were attempted and discussed to control the flea beetle. By 1880 it was discovered that replacing the branches with a frame covered by thin fabric would effectively protect plants from the beetle. This practice spread until it became ubiquitous in the 1890s.
LepidopteraLepidoptera is an order of insects that includes moths and butterflies. It is one of the most speciose orders in the class Insecta, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
whose
caterpillarCaterpillars are the larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly phytophagous in food habit, with some species being entomophagous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered pests in agriculture...
s feed on
Nicotiana include:
- Dark Sword-grass
The Dark Sword-grass or Black cutworm is a small noctuid Moth found worldwide.-Description:The Dark Sword-grass has pale brown forewings with dark brown and black markings and translucent hindwings, greyish white with brown venation...
or Black cutworm, Agrotis ipsilon
- Turnip Moth
The Turnip Moth is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is a common European species.This is a very variable species with the forewings ranging from pale buff through to almost black. The paler forms have three dark-bordered stigmata on each forewing...
, Agrotis segetum
- Mouse Moth
The Mouse Moth is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is a very widespread species with a Holarctic distribution.This is a rather drab but distinctive species. The forewings are uniform dark brown with three blackish spots arranged in a triangle. The hindwings are buffish, darker towards the...
, Amphipyra tragopoginis
- The Nutmeg, Discestra trifolii
- Endoclita excrescens
- Blackburn's Sphinx Moth, Manduca blackburni
- Tobacco Hornworm
Manduca sexta L. is a moth of the family Sphingidae present through much of the American continent. Commonly known as the tobacco hornworm, it is closely related to and often confused with the very similar tomato hornworm ; the larvae of both feed on the foliage of various plants from the family...
, Manduca sexta
- Cabbage Moth
Note: the Small White species of butterfly is commonly called a "cabbage moth" in North America.The Cabbage Moth is a common European moth of the family Noctuidae....
, Mamestra brassicae
- Angle Shades
The Angle Shades is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is a common and familiar European species and is often strongly migratory....
, Phlogophora meticulosa
- Setaceous Hebrew Character
The Setaceous Hebrew Character is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is a common species throughout Europe.The forewings of this species are reddish brown with distinctive patterning towards the base: a black mark resembling the Hebrew letter Nun:
NoctuidaeThe Noctuidae or Owlet moths are a family of robustly-built moths that includes more than 35,000 known species out of possibly 100,000 total, in more than 4,200 genera. They constitute the largest family in the Lepidoptera....
and some SphingidaeSphingidae is a family of moths , commonly known as hawk moths, sphinx moths and hornworms, that includes about 1,200 species . It is best represented in the tropics but there are species in every region . They are moderate to large in size and are distinguished among moths for their rapid,...
.
Selected species
- Nicotiana acuminata – Manyflower tobacco
- Nicotiana africana
Nicotiana africana is a species of plant in the Solanaceae family. It is endemic to Namibia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and rocky areas.-References:* Craven, P. 2004. . Downloaded on 22 August 2007....
- Nicotiana alata – Winged tobacco, Jasmine tobacco, tanbaku (Persian
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
)
- Nicotiana attenuata – Coyote tobacco
- Nicotiana benthamiana
Nicotiana benthamiana is a close relative of tobacco and species of Nicotiana indigenous to Australia.The herbaceous plant is found amongst rocks on hills and cliffs throughout the northern regions of Australia. Variable in height and habit, the species may be erect and up to 1.5 metres or...
- Nicotiana bigelovii
- Nicotiana clevelandii – Cleveland's tobacco
- Nicotiana debneyi
- Nicotiana × digluta
- Nicotiana excelsior – tobacco
- Nicotiana exigua
- Nicotiana forgetiana – tobacco
- Nicotiana glauca
Nicotiana glauca is sometimes referred to as Mustard Tree or Brazilian Tree Tobacco or simply Tree Tobacco. Its leaves are attached to the stalk by petioles , and its leaves and stems are neither pubescent nor sticky like Nicotiana tabacum...
– Tree Tobacco, Brazilian Tree Tobacco, Shrub Tobacco, Mustard Tree
- Nicotiana glutinosa – tobacco
- Nicotiana kawakamii
- Nicotiana knightiana
- Nicotiana langsdorffii – Langsdorff's tobacco
- Nicotiana longiflora
Nicotiana longiflora, the Longflower Tobacco, is a species of tobacco native to South America that is sometimes cultivated for its tubular flowers that emit a very sweet odor at night....
– Longflower Tobacco
- Nicotiana obtusifolia
Nicotiana obtusifolia, or desert tobacco, is a plant native to the southwestern United States and Mexico.- External links :*...
(N. trigonophylla) – Desert Tobacco, punche, "tabaquillo"
- Nicotiana otophora
Nicotiana otophora is a perennial herbaceous plant. It is a wild species of tobacco native to the Andes Mountains of Bolivia and Argentina....
- Nicotiana paniculata – tobacco
- Nicotiana persica
Nicotiana persica is a species of tobacco which is cultivated in Iran. It is the source of Persian Tobacco made in ITC monopoly."Persian tobacco" is for example mentioned in the Mark Twain's book Innocents Abroad, Chapter XXXIV....
- Nicotiana plumbagifolia – Tex-Mex tobacco
- Nicotiana quadrivalvis
Nicotiana quadrivalvis, also known as Indian Tobacco, is a plant in the Nicotiana genus. Once along with Nicotiana rustica it was cultivated by some Native American groups. After 1920 the Indian tobacco was thought to be extinct but in 2002 this species is rediscovered by the botanists James...
– Indian tobacco
- Nicotiana repanda – Fiddleleaf tobacco, Wild tobacco
- Nicotiana rustica
Nicotiana rustica, known in South America as Mapacho, is a plant in the Solanaceae family. It is a very potent variety of tobacco. The high concentration of nicotine in its leaves makes it useful for creating organic pesticides....
– Aztec tobacco, Mapacho
- Nicotiana × sanderae – Sander's tobacco
- Nicotiana stocktonii
- Nicotiana suaveolens – Australian tobacco
- Nicotiana sylvestris
Nicotiana sylvestris is a plant native to South America, but sometimes grown in gardens for its coarse form and strongly scented flowers. The leaves are simple, with the blade partially surrounding the stem...
– South American tobacco, Woodland Tobacco
- Nicotiana tabacum
Nicotiana tabacum, or cultivated tobacco, is a perennial herbaceous plant. It is found only in cultivation, where it is the most commonly grown of all plants in the Nicotiana genus, and its leaves are commercially grown in many countries to be processed into tobacco. It grows to heights between 1...
– Cultivated Tobacco, Common Tobacco (a cultivated hybrid - properly Nicotiana × tabacum)
- Nicotiana tomentosa – tobacco
- Nicotiana tomentosiformis
Nicotiana tomentosiformis is a perennial herbaceous plant. It is a wild species of tobacco native to the Yungas Valley region in the eastern piedmont of the Andes Mountains, primarily in Bolivia....
See also
- Agroinfiltration
Agroinfiltration is a method in plant biology to induce transient expression of genes in a plant or to produce a desired protein. In the method a suspension of Agrobacterium is injected into a plant leaf, where it transfers the desired gene to plant cells...
- Edgar Anderson
Edgar Anderson was an American botanist. His 1949 book Introgressive Hybridization was an original and important contribution to botanical genetics....
- Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown, located on Jamestown Island in the Virginia Colony, was founded on May 14, 1607. It is commonly regarded as the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States of America, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke. It was founded...
- Jean Nicot
Jean Nicot was a French diplomat and scholar.Born in Nîmes, in the south of France, he was French ambassador in Lisbon, Portugal from 1559 to 1561....
- John Rolfe
John Rolfe was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia and is known as the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy.No one knows what John Rolfe...
- List of plants poisonous to equines
- Nancy Tyson Burbidge
Nancy Tyson Burbidge AO was an Australian systemic botanist, conservationist and herbarium curator.Burbidge was born in Cleckheaton, Yorkshire; her father, William Burbidge, was an Anglican clergyman and immigrated to Australia in 1913 when he was appointed to a parish in Western Australia...
- Pectinesterase
Pectinesterase is a ubiquitous cell-wall-associated enzyme that presents several isoforms that facilitate plant cell wall modification and subsequent breakdown. It is found in all higher plants as well as in some bacteria and fungi...
- Turkish tobacco
Turkish tobacco or Oriental tobacco is highly aromatic, small-leafed variety of tobacco which is sun-cured. Historically, it was cultivated primarily in Thrace and Macedonia, now divided among Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, and Turkey, but it is now also grown on the Black Sea coast...
- Indian tobacco