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Nicotiana forsteri; photograph Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYThomas Mesaglio, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Nicotiana forsteri Roem. & Schult.

Debney's tobacco

Solanaceae · Norfolk Is., Queensland +1

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Nicotiana forsteri, photograph Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFNicotiana forsteri, photograph Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFNicotiana forsteri, photograph Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFNicotiana forsteri, photograph Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFNicotiana forsteri, photograph Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFNicotiana forsteri, photograph Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 21 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
2.9°C
Record low -0.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
865mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
21–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes April to September (October to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Nicotiana forsteri (syn. Nicotiana debneyi) is a species of wild tobacco in the family Solanaceae, native to Queensland, New South Wales, Lord Howe Island (all part of Australia) and New Caledonia. It is a tetraploid.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Nicotiana forsteri", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Nicotiana", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (596 mm of 849 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.7 °C against a yearly mean of 19.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Rain

849 mm in the median year at the habitat, 596 mm of it October to March. Wettest month February at 128 mm, driest month August at 32 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 661 mm to 1,233 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 865 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 849 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 2.9 °C, the absolute minimum -0.6 °C, 4 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.7 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 5.0 °C to 12.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.1 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -152 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Nicotiana forsteri through the yearWarmest months January and December, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 7.7 °C; 849 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost38.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-0.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 21–42RH 54–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 125 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 26–3228 / 25–3127 / 24–3025 / 21–2722 / 18–2419 / 16–2218 / 15–2120 / 17–2324 / 21–2626 / 23–2927 / 24–3029 / 26–31
Night °C20 / 17–2320 / 17–2218 / 15–2115 / 12–1912 / 9–169 / 6–138 / 5–129 / 6–1311 / 9–1515 / 11–1817 / 13–2019 / 16–22
Rain mm110 / 83–167128 / 89–20280 / 50–14958 / 40–10953 / 36–9541 / 31–8236 / 23–5432 / 24–4633 / 23–4466 / 39–8989 / 73–117123 / 97–158
DLI41 / 39–4436 / 34–3934 / 31–3828 / 26–3224 / 21–2621 / 19–2423 / 21–2529 / 27–3136 / 34–3940 / 38–4342 / 39–4442 / 40–45
RH %60 / 53–6461 / 55–6560 / 53–6559 / 53–6359 / 55–6258 / 55–6056 / 54–5855 / 51–5754 / 49–5856 / 50–6058 / 52–6159 / 53–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 125 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (174 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2360:6651 (-28.025, 152.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 125 distinct grid cells holding 174 of the 175 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2360:6651 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -28.00_152.500, lapse-corrected -152 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 195 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNorfolk Is., Queensland, New Caledonia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-28.018, 152.597 · in the densest population, 142 records (65% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 218 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 174 of them in the land cells it reads, of 175 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 192 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 115 km away. 63 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 43 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 218 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Nicotiana forsteri, photograph 1did not loadNicotiana forsteri, photograph 2did not loadNicotiana forsteri, photograph 3did not loadNicotiana forsteri, photograph 4did not loadNicotiana forsteri, photograph 5did not loadNicotiana forsteri, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Pittosporum viscidum Pittosporum viscidum Black-fruited thornbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyAcalypha capillipes Acalypha capillipes Small-leaved acalypha Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyFlindersia collina Flindersia collina Broad-leaved leopard tree Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyEucalyptus major Eucalyptus major Queensland grey gum Photo: CC BY-SA, LewisNotelaea lloydii Notelaea lloydii Lloyd's olive Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyDenhamia pittosporoides Denhamia pittosporoides Orange-boxwood Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg Tasney

Other Nicotiana 28 in the reference

Nicotiana acuminata Nicotiana acuminata Manyflower tobacco Photo: CC BY, Deb KempNicotiana africana Nicotiana africana African Tobacco Photo: CC BY-SA, SAplantsNicotiana alata Nicotiana alata Sweet tobacco Photo: CC0, author not statedNicotiana attenuata Nicotiana attenuata Coyote tobacco Photo: CC BY, Parker James LloydNicotiana benthamiana Nicotiana benthamiana Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Steve WylieNicotiana cordifolia Nicotiana cordifolia Solanaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedNicotiana glauca Nicotiana glauca Tree tobacco Photo: CC BY, i_c_riddellNicotiana glutinosa Nicotiana glutinosa Tobacco Photo: CC0, author not statedNicotiana knightiana Nicotiana knightiana Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Ben Lyle BedardNicotiana langsdorffii Nicotiana langsdorffii Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, naturewatchwidowNicotiana longiflora Nicotiana longiflora Longflower tobacco Photo: CC BY, RAPNicotiana maritima Nicotiana maritima Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Kiri Bee all 29 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Nicotiana australasiae; Nicotiana australis; Nicotiana debneyi; Nicotiana fruticosa; Nicotiana suaevolens and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
Roem. & Schult.
Native to
Norfolk Is., Queensland, New Caledonia
Wild records
218 in range · 192 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -28.00_152.500, lapse-corrected -152 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 28 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…