In honor of "Kick Butts" anti-smoking week, I encourage gardeners to take a closer look at flowering tobacco. Bred to bear colorful, fragrant flowers throughout summer, this tobacco plant is a much kinder cousin of Nicotiana tabacum, the species that contributed to the deaths of about 400,000 Americans last year. Hardy to USDA Hardiness Zone 9, flowering tobacco is grown as an annual in Utah.

Flowers and fragrance: Flowering tobacco is becoming more popular and available at garden centers. Plant it near your porch or patio to enjoy its fragrant flowers and to watch evening-nectaring moths. Flower colors include white, pink and purple.

Plant size depends on cultivar and ranges from 8 inches tall to 3 feet tall. Most of the smaller types are hybrids, selected for their compact habits. The open-pollinated species grow much taller. Nicotiana sylvestris, one species commonly found in seed catalogs, has white, tube-shaped, fragrant flowers atop a 5-foot plant. Nicotiana alata, commonly known as Jasmine tobacco, is also favored for intense fragrance.

These open-pollinated types reseed readily, but seeds won't germinate until late spring or early summer when soil temperature is warm. In a protected site their root system may survive. Sprouts from this root system grow quickly as summer begins.

Family tree: A member of the Solanaceae family, tobacco is related to tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and nightshade. All of these plants produce dangerous alkaloids, although parts of some of these plants are edible. Animals typically avoid eating toxic plants. Certain insects, however, feed on these plants and are consequently protected from predators. Hornworm caterpillars, for example, are safe from bird predation because of plant alkaloids within the caterpillar guts.

Humans must be careful around Solanaceae plants, too. Potatoes stored in warm temperatures or exposed to light can have high alkaloid content and cause illness when eaten. Nightshades, famous for their poisonous nature, are members of the Solanaceae family. Nicotine is one alkaloid produced by the tobacco plant. It is poisonous to humans and was often used as an insecticide before the chemical industry "discovered" organophosphates.

Smoking section: According to the USDA plants database (http://plants.usda.gov/index.html), 15 species of the genus Nicotiana L. exist in the United States. Concentrations of nicotine and other alkaloids in these species vary greatly. The flowering tobacco plants typically contain much less than tobacco cultivated for smoking.

Flowers of the smoking tobacco plant are attractive, but because the plant is large and pest-prone, it isn't desirable in most landscapes. Salt Lake Master Gardener Dick Hadfield grows smoking tobacco from seed he collects at the end of every season.

"I have no idea where the original seed actually came from," he said. "They were in a sealed glass jar inside my father's garden shed."

He started some of the seed inside his lean-to greenhouse, and shared the garden oddity with fellow master gardeners. The plants have shown up in various Salt Lake Master Gardener project gardens, including Gilgal Garden in Salt Lake City.

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Maggie Wolf is an assistant professor for Utah State University Extension in Salt Lake County. Her area of expertise is horticulture. Contact her by e-mail -- maggiew@ext.usu.edu -- or by phone at 801-468-3171.