Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Annual to perennial, forb to subshrub, diffusely and intricately branched, stems 20-50 cm tall, viscid-puberulent.

Leaves: Blades variable, ovate, deltoid, or cordate, 1-3 cm long, entire or shallowly sinuate, on petioles of equal length.

Flowers: On slender pedicels, 1-2 cm long; campanulate calyx, 3-5 mm long at anthesis, in fruit becoming 15-25 mm long, ovoid, obscurely angled; corolla pale tawny-yellow, 10-15 mm wide.

Fruits: Greenish berry.

Ecology: Found on sandy and rocky soils below 3,000 ft (914 m); flowers February-October.

Distribution: s UT and AZ to se CA; Baja Calif., MEX

Notes: The only suffrutescent Physalis species in Arizona and also the most xerophytic one.

Ethnobotany: Unknown, but other species in the genera have many uses, including food.

Etymology: Physalis from Greek physallis, a bladder or bubble, due to inflated calyx, while crassifolia means thick-leaved.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010