Tree Tobacco
Nicotiana glauca · Solanaceae
- Height
- 6-20 ft
- Habitat
- Riparian · Disturbed
🚫 Invasive / non-native weed
Toxic All parts contain anabasine and related alkaloids and are poisonous if eaten; ingestions can be fatal to people and livestock. Don’t taste it; keep it from children and animals.
At a glance
- Tell-tale sign: Lanky open shrub/small tree with blue-green oval leaves and dangling tubular yellow flowers
- Form: Fast, soft-wooded, 6–20 ft
How to identify
A gangly, fast-growing shrub or small tree with smooth blue-green (glaucous), paddle-shaped leaves and clusters of long, tubular, soft-yellow flowers nearly year-round. Soft-wooded and weedy, it shoots up on disturbed ground, roadsides, washes, and creek edges.
How it got here
Tree tobacco is native to the Andes. It’s Nicotiana glauca, a species in the same genus as cultivated tobacco. It made its way to California in the late 1800s as an ornamental, grown for its tubular yellow flowers. Like many ornamentals, it escaped cultivation, first into disturbed ground around settlements and roadsides. By the mid-1900s it was showing up along Southern California’s streams and washes. It thrives on disturbance, and riparian corridors where the ground is disturbed or freshly cleared are exactly where native restoration efforts are trying to take hold, which makes tree tobacco especially problematic in those places.
Why it’s a problem
Tree tobacco colonizes disturbed and riparian ground, competing with native willows and shrubs. All parts contain anabasine and related alkaloids and are poisonous if eaten; ingestion can be fatal to people and livestock. It is quick to dominate cleared sites, especially after floods, when native vegetation is thin and bare ground offers an opening. Once established, the dense canopy shades out smaller native herbs and seedlings. Because it regrows so fast after disturbance, unless replanting happens quickly, tree tobacco fills the gap faster than natives can, and the longer it holds the space, the harder it is to displace.
How it spreads
By abundant tiny seed; thrives on disturbance and bare ground.
How to remove it
- Pull or dig young plants (soft roots come up fairly easily, especially when moist).
- Cut larger trunks and treat the stump, or remove the root crown; bag any seed capsules.
- Wear gloves (toxic sap) and revegetate cleared riparian ground with natives like Mule Fat and willows.
Restoration alternative
The niche tree tobacco fills, a fast-growing soft-wooded shrub that colonizes wet disturbed ground, is exactly what native willows and Mule Fat do, without the toxicity or the long tenure. Arroyo Willow and Goodding’s Willow are the riparian backbone, fast and dense and home to breeding birds and insects that depend on creek habitat. Mule Fat grows as quickly and covers bare ground just as aggressively, but it feeds native bees and butterflies instead of poisoning them. For establishing cover on freshly cleared streambanks, California Blackberry creates protective thickets that improve habitat. Pairing any of these with Western Sycamore as the big structural tree, plus Mugwort or California Goldenrod for understory diversity, gives restored riparian ground a fighting chance against re-invasion. Willows and sycamores build the bank, shade the water, and house the fish. Tree tobacco just takes up space and waits for something to browse it and die.
