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New weird Nicotiana - N. mutabilis

I have seeds to a really nice new Nicotiana that I'd like to offer.  I
have somewhat limited amounts of it but can spare around 20 small packets
of seed.

The plant is N. mutabilis.  It's a provisional name as it's not officially
described yet.  It comes from Brazil, where it grows in waste places.

It's a large plant, mine are about 6 feet high.  It starts out resembling
N. sylvestris in habit - a large rosette up to 3' wide.  It then grows up
with smaller and smaller leaves, to about 4 feet; when it's attenuated
there, it spreads out again in flowering.  

The inflorescense consists of many branched, thin wand-like stems, with
the flowers hanging along them.  The flowers consist of a tube about 1"
long, a flaring corolla about 3/4 of an inch wide, with a black ring in
the eye.  Here's the fun part (and the reason for the species name
"mutabilis"):  The flowers open white, on the second day they are pale
pink, aging to deep rose pink over about 4 days.  It's spectacular.
Unfortunately there is no fragrance but I've crossed it with N. alata as
well and hope to have an intermediate plant with some fragrance that will
keep the flower color characteristics.   We'll see.

The plant must cross-pollinate to produce seed.  I'm not sure if it will
turn out to be annual or perennial; it *is* tough, and has withstood
several frosts in Seattle (but we have had a very mild winter so far).

If you are interested in growing this, please send me a stamped
self-addressed envelope and I'll mail a packet to you, first-come
first-serve of course.  My address is below.

(And hopefully, if I lose my plants at some point, I will be able to hit
on you for seed again!!)

Bob

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 Bob Beer       		bbeer@u.washington.edu
 607 N 46th     		http://weber.u.washington.edu/~bbeer
 Seattle, WA  98103		* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 (206) 632-9481		     ...oh crap...I'm turning into my mother....
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