Duration: Annual

Nativity: Non-Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annuals to 45cm; stems and branches spreading and ascending, sparsely pubescent on leaf edges and veins, more densely pubescent on new growth, hairs up to 1 mm long, not glandular, sometimes clearly multicellular.

Leaves: Alternate, ovate, lanceolate or elliptic, 2-6 cm long, 1-3.4 cm wide, 1.7-2.4 times as long as wide; base acute, often obliquely so; apex acute to acuminate; margins dentate or serrate.

Flowers: Peduncle 0.5-1.2 cm long; calyx 0.2-0.6 cm long in flower, the lobes about as long as the tube; corolla yellow, with a purplish darkened center, campanulate, up to 1.5 cm long; anthers purplish tinged.

Fruits: Fruiting calyx ovoid to subglobose, to ca. 2.5 cm long and ca. 2 cm wide; berry up to 2.5 cm in diameter; seeds lenticular, 2-2.5 mm wide.

Ecology: Found in disturbed areas, grasslands; 3600-4900 ft (1100-1500 m); flowering and fruiting Aug-Sep.

Distribution: Widespread in U.S., Can. and Mex., widely cultivated.

Notes: Most similar to P. angulata but has a larger flower (0.4-1cm wide in angulata). Also similar to P. pubescens and neomexicana but differs by a few characters, primarily its sparsely hairy to semi glabrous stems.

Ethnobotany: This is the cultivated -tomatillo- from Mexico. It is unclear if populations in Arizona are native or escaped. Cultivated plants should be expected to be more robust that those described here.

Synonyms: None

Editor: FSCoburn 2014

Etymology: Physalis comes from the Greek physalis, "a bladder or bubble," because of the inflated calyx. The epithet philadelphica means -of Philadelphia-.

Branching annual 2-6 dm, nearly glabrous except on the younger parts, where it is strigillose, often in 2 strips, with decurved hairs; lvs ovate or rhombic, 2-6 cm, entire to sinuate-toothed; pedicels at anthesis 3-5 mm, scarcely longer in fr; cor 7-15 mm, with dark center; anthers blue-purple, mostly 2.5-3.5 mm, becoming twisted or contorted; fruiting cal rounded at base; berry edible, purplish, viscid, nearly filling the cal; 2n=24. Native of Mexico, occasionally escaped from cult. in our range. (P. ixocarpa)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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