February 21, 1984: 36 years ago

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
Well, please don’t, really. This is a scientific specimen.
 
This tobacco specimen was collected in Ecuador by Hendrik Balslev on February 21 1984. Hendrik Balslev is now a professor at Aarhus University, Denmark, who studies the taxonomy and ethnobotany of plants of the Amazon. This specimen was planted by the Secoya tribe in the “area of tropical rainforest.” The Secoya are a group of indigenous peoples, with a distinct culture and language, living in the Amazon regions of Ecuador and Peru.
 
Tobacco refers to more than 70 species of plants in the genus Nicotiana. In the nightshade family (Solanaceae), tobacco is related to deadly nightshade, potatoes, and tomatoes. They famously contain the addictive alkaloid stimulant chemical nicotine. Nicotine is a neurotoxin for insects, produced by plant for its insecticide properties.  For that reason, tobacco has also been used as an insecticide.
 
Tobacco is a culturally important plant, far beyond a pack of cigarettes. The commonly cultivated species is Nicotiana tabacum. Tobacco has rich, long history of medicinal and traditional use in the Americas, especially Mesoamerica and Caribbean, and with many native American tribes growing and using tobacco for centuries. It was used for smoking, in religious ceremonies, socially, as a sign of peace (peace pipes), as a good for trade, and more. There is evidence suggesting its cultivation in Mexico as early as 1500 BC.
 
When Europeans arrived in the Americas, tobacco was quickly prized and popularized in Europe.  Tobacco was influential in European colonization in North America, becoming a major cash crop. Tobacco was important to the history of the United States, but with a dark side. Many of America’s founding fathers had tobacco plantations, mostly operated through slave labor. The cultivation of tobacco fueled the early slave trade in 17th and 18th century America.  The number of slaves from Africa in the Chesapeake region (Virginia) and North Carolina increased greatly.   
 
A complicated plant – botanically and culturally.
 
Find this specimen and more here: http://midatlanticherbaria.org/portal/collections/list.php?db=328&catnum=CM321082&othercatnum=1