A group of teachers and I recently attended a workshop on Harper Lee and Truman Capote in Monroeville, Alabama. On the long ride into the deep South, we discussed all kinds of trivia related to "To Kill a Mockingbird." Rabbit-tobacco came up. I happened to have a dictionary page with a very pretty photograph of the plant to show the group, but one teacher said, "I don't think this is rabbit-tobacco. The botanical name is Nicotiana sylvestris." My photograph was of Gnaphalium obtusifolium, which is a well-documented name for rabbit-tobacco. Nicotiana sylvestris is referred to as 'flowering tobacco' sometimes, but I can't find it referred to as 'rabbit-tobacco.' However, common names can cause uncommon confusion when it comes to identifying plants.

How would I best go about knowing which of these tobaccos was the more likely plant to have been growing wildly in the Radley 'swept yard' of Mockingbird?


*Of interest: The American tobacco that is grown for cigarettes is Nicotiana tabacum, and is in the nightshade family along with tomatoes, belladonna, potatoes, eggplant, and the rest of this enormous family. (And seeing that list makes me wonder why is it we add 'es' to tomato and potato, but only 's' to tobacco? English has GOT to be the dadburndest language on earth.)