Nicotiana glauca is a small tree or shrub with many branches that normally grows to over 2 m, but can reach as high as 7 m. Its leaves are thick and rubbery and can be up to 20 cm long.

[2] It is originally native to South America (including Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador),[1] but has been naturalized globally.

It is found in Australia, warmer parts of Europe, temperate Asia, Canarian Archipelago, New Zealand, the United States, Mexico, Hawaii, and Sub-Saharan Africa (including Kenya and Tanzania, where it is invasive, as well as Uganda).

[1][4] The genus is named after Jean Nicot (c. 1530 – 1604), a French ambassador to Portugal, who sent tobacco seeds and powdered leaves from Lisbon to France.

[8] The Cahuilla people used leaves interchangeably with other tobacco species in religious rituals and as a poultice to treat swellings, bruises, cuts, wounds, boils, sores, inflamed throat, and swollen glands.