Species
+

Nicotiana alata Link & Otto

Indian tobacco, Jasmine Tobacco, Jasmine tobacco, Persian tobacco

Climate known 103 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Nicotiana alata is a species of tobacco. It is called jasmine tobacco, sweet tobacco, winged tobacco, tanbaku, and Persian tobacco.

Text from Wikipedia, “Nicotiana alata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Nicotiana

Nicotiana is a genus of herbaceous plants and shrubs in the family Solanaceae that is indigenous to the Americas, Australia, Southwestern Africa and the South Pacific. Various Nicotiana species, commonly referred to as tobacco plants, are cultivated by humans.

Text from Wikipedia, “Nicotiana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
Link & Otto
Native to
Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast +2
Wild records
181 in range· 151 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1757mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 175 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–42DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (January, March to August and October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1757 mm a year, wettest October at 175 mm, driest August at 114 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Nicotiana acutifolia Burb.; Nicotiana affinis T.Moore; Nicotiana affinis var. grandiflora Comes; Nicotiana alata f. rubella Moldenke; Nicotiana alata subsp. grandiflora Comes and 9 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (January, March to August and October in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1244 mm of 1757 mm) takes 8 months, September to February, April and July. Mean temperature moves 10.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: January, March to August and October.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1757 mm a year, wettest October at 175 mm, driest August at 114 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1757 mm a year at the habitat, 1244 mm of it September to February, April and July. Wettest month October at 175 mm, driest August at 114 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1388 mm to 2064 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 0.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 0.8 °C, the absolute minimum -3.6 °C, about 2 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.4 °C in July (across the envelope cells 7.4 °C to 12.3 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 18 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 9 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1757 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 142 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost37.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 16–42RH 61–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 142 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 25–3127 / 25–3026 / 24–2924 / 21–2620 / 18–2219 / 16–2018 / 16–2020 / 17–2321 / 19–2424 / 21–2726 / 23–2827 / 24–30
Night °C19 / 17–2219 / 17–2218 / 16–2115 / 13–1812 / 10–1510 / 8–139 / 7–1211 / 9–1412 / 10–1514 / 12–1716 / 14–1918 / 16–21
Rain mm163 / 116–203158 / 129–198123 / 99–158151 / 114–195137 / 110–164139 / 82–166141 / 69–170114 / 58–136162 / 95–191175 / 117–233150 / 115–185144 / 101–185
DLI40 / 38–4437 / 35–3832 / 31–3424 / 23–2619 / 18–2116 / 15–1918 / 16–2023 / 21–2627 / 25–2934 / 32–3540 / 38–4242 / 40–46
RH %62 / 58–6563 / 60–6662 / 60–6563 / 61–6563 / 62–6664 / 62–6663 / 61–6561 / 59–6462 / 59–6562 / 60–6561 / 58–6461 / 57–64

Each figure is the median across the 142 grid cells holding the 169 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2400:2520 (-30.025, -53.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 142 distinct grid cells holding the 169 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2400:2520 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -30.00_-53.750, lapse-corrected -51 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 69 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay, Uruguay· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Tunisia, Kenya, Tanzania, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Taiwan, India, Myanmar, Jawa, New York, Maryland, Jamaica, Trinidad-Tobago, Colombia
Kew's description“annual or perennial” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-29.294, -51.594 · in the densest population, 127 records (70% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 181 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 151 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 1132 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 181 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Nicotiana alataNicotiana alataNicotiana alataNicotiana alataNicotiana alataNicotiana alataNicotiana alataNicotiana alata

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (7); (c) aacocucci, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Nicotiana alata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Cloning of cDNA for a stylar glycoprotein associated with expression of self-incompatibility in Nicotiana alata
Marilyn A. Anderson, Edwina C. Cornish, S. L. Mau, Elizabeth G. Williams (1986) · Nature
Self-incompatibility in Nicotiana alata involves degradation of pollen rRNA
Bruce McClure, Julie E. Gray, Marilyn A. Anderson, Adrienne E. Clarke (1990) · Nature
Ribonuclease activity of Petunia inflata S proteins is essential for rejection of self-pollen.
Sanwen Huang, Hae Sang Lee, Balasulojini Karunanandaa, Teh‐hui Kao (1994) · The Plant Cell
Isolation and Properties of Floral Defensins from Ornamental Tobacco and Petunia
Fung T. Lay, Filippa Brugliera, Marilyn A. Anderson (2003) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
The location of (1?3)-?-glucans in the walls of pollen tubes of Nicotiana alata using a (1?3)-?-glucan-specific monoclonal antibody
Peter J. Meikle, Ingrid Bönig, Nicholas J. Hoogenraad, Adrienne E. Clarke (1991) · Planta
The Plant Defensin, NaD1, Enters the Cytoplasm of Fusarium Oxysporum Hyphae
Nicole L. van der Weerden, Fung T. Lay, Marilyn A. Anderson (2008) · Journal of Biological Chemistry
Sequence variability of three alleles of the self-incompatibility gene of Nicotiana alata.
Marilyn A. Anderson, G. I. McFadden, Robert Bernatzky, A. Atkinson (1989) · The Plant Cell
Proteinase inhibitors in Nicotiana alata stigmas are derived from a precursor protein which is processed into five homologous inhibitors.
A. Atkinson, Robert L. Heath, Richard J. Simpson, Adrienne E. Clarke (1993) · The Plant Cell
Cellulose Synthase-Like Genes of Rice
Samuel P. Hazen, John S. Scott‐Craig, Jonathan D. Walton (2002) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Arabinogalactan-proteins from Nicotiana alata and Pyrus communis contain glycosylphosphatidylinositol membrane anchors
Joelian Youl, Antony Bacic, David Oxley (1998) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
A small asparagine-rich protein required for S-allele-specific pollen rejection in Nicotiana
Bruce McClure, Beiquan Mou, Stefano Canevascini, Robert Bernatzky (1999) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Nicotiana 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 136 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.