Duration: Perennial
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Perennial herb, 30-50 cm tall, from a woody root; stems usually ascending, rarely decumbent; herbage cinereous-puberulent, sometimes glandular-pubescent.
Leaves: Alternate along the stems, on petioles 5-35 mm long; blades lanceolate to ovate or rhomboid, 2-4 cm long and 1-3 cm wide, 1 to 2.5 times as long as wide, the margins coarsely sinuate-dentate, usually with 3-4 teeth on each side.
Flowers: Small, yellow, and nodding, on recurved pedicels 5-15 mm long from the leaf axils; calyx 5-toothed and bell-shaped, 5-11 mm long, with the teeth shorter than the tube portion of the calyx; corolla bell-shaped, 11-15 mm wide, yellow with a darker, usually greenish center.
Fruits: Berries ovoid, yellow, 1-2 cm wide; surrounded by a papery husk (the persistent calyx) which is 2-3 cm long, ovoid, obtusely 10-angled, and strongly net-veined (reticulate).
Ecology: Found in canyon bottoms and along washes, from 1,500-7,000 ft (457-2134 m); flowers April-October.
Distribution: CA east to LA and north to MT; south to s MEX.
Notes: Distinguished as being a perennial from long roots with a growth form ranging from loose-ascending to mound-shaped; glandular or branched hairs all over the stems, leaves, and calyxes; toothed, ovate leaves; and downward-curving flower stalks about the same length as the flowers (flower stalks are twice as long as the flower in P. crassifolia). The Vascular Plants of Arizona treatment (VPAP; Landrum et al. 2013) does not recognize any varieties or subspecies. Flora Neomexicana (Allred and Ivey 2012) recognizes 3 varieties based on the type of hairs on the stems and leaves. Var. hederifolia has long, multicellular hairs which are sometimes branched; var. fendleri has short, branched, nonglandular hairs; and var. comata has elongate hairs which are not branched.
Ethnobotany: This is a wild tomatillo; the berries can be eaten raw or cooked.
Etymology: Physalis is from the Greek physa, a bladder or bubble, and -alis, pertaining to, for the inflated calyx; hederifolia means having leaves like ivy, genus Hedera.
Synonyms: Physalis hederaefolia; Physalis hederaefolia var. puberula; Physalis hederifolia var. puberula
Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015, AHazelton 2017
