Nicotiana obtusifolia

Nicotiana obtusifolia, the desert tobacco or punche, is an annual to short-lived perennial herb in the Solanaceae family native to arid regions of the south-western United States and northern Mexico, extending from California and Nevada east to Texas and south through Sonora, Chihuahua and Baja California. Plants reach 30 to 80 centimetres tall with sticky, glandular-hairy stems arising from a short taproot. The lower leaves are oblong to lanceolate, blunt-tipped (giving the species its name), and clasp the stem with small basal lobes; upper leaves are progressively reduced and sessile. From spring into early autumn the stems produce open panicles of small, pale greenish-white to dull yellow trumpet-shaped flowers, 12 to 20 millimetres long, with a slightly flared five-lobed corolla limb. The fruit is a small ovoid capsule containing many minute brown seeds. The species characteristically colonises rocky slopes, canyon walls, washes, and disturbed ground from sea level to about 1,800 metres.