Indian tobacco

American  

noun

1. a common American plant, Lobelia inflata, of the lobelia family, having small, blue flowers and inflated capsules.

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Indian tobacco British  

noun

1. a poisonous North American campanulaceous plant, Lobelia inflata, with small pale blue flowers and rounded inflated seed capsules

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Etymology

Origin of Indian tobacco

First recorded in 1610–20

Example Sentences

Essentra FZE from about 2013 to 2019 was a subsidiary of a partnership begun in 2013 in Dubai with an Indian tobacco company identified only as “Company 1” in court filings.

From Washington Post • Jul. 16, 2020

In the 1990s, she began working with lobeline, a compound derived from a group of plants, including Lobelia inflata, commonly known as Indian tobacco.

From Nature • Jun. 23, 2015

Sir James: In regard to the constitution of the cigarets, I understand that the material to which my honorable friend refers may, in fact, be Indian tobacco.

From Time Magazine Archive

So sprinkled was the pasture with rag-baby blossoms and the cottony herb of Indian tobacco that it spread out like a rare old Persian carpet of cream and rose and delicate green.

From Main Street by Lewis, Sinclair

He went up on the hill near the camp, and sacrificed some eagle feathers, and some blue beads, and some Indian tobacco, and then returned to the camp.

From Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales With notes on the origin, customs and character of the Pawnee people by Grinnell, George Bird