Usually in cultivated ground such as cornfields and less frequently on open wooded slopes and in alluvial bottoms. [Deam considered P. pruinosa as a species distinct from P. pubescens. It differs from P. pruninosa in having obtusely angled (rather than sharply angled) stems, cordate leaf bases, and more strongly sinuate-toothed leaf margins. It occurs] in moist soil in clearings, alluvial bottoms, pastures, and fallow fields.

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annuals, densely pubescent, the hairs 0.25-1.2 mm long, clearly multicellular, glandular.

Leaves: Alternate, ovate (0.9-) 1.5-8.1 cm long, (0.7-) 1.2-8.1 cm wide, 0.6-1 times long as wide; apex acute to acuminate; base slightly cordate to cuneate, often oblique; margins entire to sparsely toothed, the teeth acute.

Flowers: Penduncles 0.5-0.9 cm long; flowering calyx 0.4-0.7 cm long; corolla yellow with darkened center, campanulate, 0.5-0.7 cm long, 0.6-0.7 cm wide; anthers yellow or bluish, 0.1-0.2 cm long.

Fruits: Fruiting calyx ovoid to suglobose 1.7-3.6 cm wide, 2.0-4.0 cm long; berry 0.7-1.7 cm in diameter; seeds lenticular, 1.5-2 mm wide.

Ecology: Found in oak, juniper, mesquite and riparian woodlands, scrub, canyons, riparian, moist, or disturbed areas 4000-8000 ft (1200-2400 m); flowering Feb-Oct.

Distribution: se AZ, NM, w Mex.

Notes: Most similar to P. neomexicana but distinguished by its acute to acuminate leaf apices (rounded in the former), acute marginal teeth on leaves (rounded in the former) and the more prismatic shape of the fruiting calyces. Also similar to philadelphica but with densely pubescent stems, and with angulata but with a larger flower (0.4-1cm wide in angulata) and fruiting calyx 2-4 cm long(1-2 cm long in angulata).

Ethnobotany: Many species in the genus have been utilyzed and even cultivated for their edible berries which are enveloped in an inflated calyx.

Synonyms: none

Editor: FSCoburn 2014

Etymology: Physalis comes from the Greek physalis, "a bladder or bubble," because of the inflated calyx. The epithet pubescens refers to the dense pubescence of the plant.

Annual to 6 dm, widely branched from near the base, villous or viscid-villous; lvs ovate, 3-10 cm; pedicels 5-10 at anthesis, 5-20 mm in fr; cor 6-10 mm, yellow with a dark center; cal-lobes narrow, 2-4 mm; anthers 1.5-2 mm; fruiting cal 2-4 cm, 5-angled; 2n=24. Moist soil; pantropical, n. to Mass., Ont., and Wis. May-Sept. Three vars. in our range.

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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