Erect viscid annual herb to 2.5 m high; branches with dense glandular hairs. Leaves initially in a basal rosette but these usually withered at maturity and then most leaves cauline, sessile, ovate to obovate, 20–40 cm long, 8–18 cm wide, clammy, with abundant gland-tipped hairs, bases amplexicaul. Inflorescences terminal, racemose or a few-branched panicle. Flowers usually pendent; pedicels to c. 10 mm long, densely glandular; calyx c. 10–15 mm long, glandular-hairy, the lobes 2–5 mm long; corolla white, tube 50–80 mm long or more, glandular-pubescent, limb 20–30 mm diam., lobes acute. Capsule ovoid, c. 12 mm long; seeds obovoid-obcuneoid, c. 0.6 mm long, brown, tuberculate in lines. Flowers Mar (1 record).
GipP. Native to Argentina. Known from only 2 collections in Victoria, (Heathcote, 1960 and Lower Plenty, 2012). Almost certainly growing from seed of cultivated plants nearby. It is not considered naturalised in Victoria (or other Australian States) at this stage.
It is believed that Nicotiana sylvestris is one of the parent species of Tobacco, N. tabacum which is not known to occur in nature
