Amongst the gravel in my front yard, as well as further out by the curb, I have what appears (to me) to be several plants of the same species of Nightshade family. I think that they might be of the Nicotiana genus, but I've been unable to find a matching species. Given the varying toxicity of the Nightshade family, I'm leery of doing anything with them (other than look at them or dispose of them) without a positive identification. The flowers each consist of five rounded indigo to dark purple petals and five white stamen. The flowers are currently approximately 1cm wide; and the petals are just under 1cm long, linearly tapering to the sepals. The sepals are approximately 1cm long and maintain a tubular shape to the base of the flowers. The flowers appear in pairs of immediately adjacent clusters (with around ten flowers each), with enclosing opposing leaves (one on each side of the pair of clusters). Each pair of clusters appears on its own branch off of the main stock. Leaves also individually form off of the main stocks. The leaves are pointed. The plants are currently around 30cm tall. Both the stocks and the leaves are rather hairy. To me, it looks like some kind of tobacco plant. Can anybody confirm the genus and species? If it is a tobacco, I might let them grow and try my hand at harvesting and curing the leaves at the end of the season.
