Flowering Tobacco

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 17 June 2026

Flowering tobacco in the June border, a garden selection of a South American plant grown for the border rather than for a moth.

The star shape and the long tube behind each flower are built for a hawkmoth's tongue. Nicotiana is pollinated mostly after dark, which is why the wild species are white or pale and heavily scented at night. This magenta has been bred for colour and has largely lost the fragrance in the process; the white ones a few beds over still smell at dusk.

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Flowering Tobacco