Physalis heterophylla Nees

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Solanaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Physalis heterophylla Nees

  • Description

    Species Description - Erect or spreading, rhizomatous perennial 2–9 dm; pubescence of the upper parts, pedicels, and cal distinctly villous, of slender, spreading hairs; lvs chiefly ovate or rhombic, 3–8 cm, acute, shallowly and irregularly sinuate-dentate or sometimes entire, broadly rounded or subcordate at base, not decurrent, hairy on both sides; pedicels to 1 cm at anthesis, to 3 cm in fr; cal-lobes deltoid or ovate, the margins straight or slightly concave; cor 12–20 mm; filaments dilated at the summit, about as broad as the anthers, these 3–4.5 mm long; fruiting cal ovoid, 3–4 cm, retuse at base; fr green; 2n=24. Dry or sandy soil, upland woods, and prairies, probably our most abundant sp.; Que. and N.S. to Minn., Colo., and Utah, s. to Fla. and Tex. June–Sept. Typical P. heterophylla has the hairs of the stem and lower lf-surface very fine, viscid, and densely crowded, seldom over 0.5 mm, more copious on the lf-veins than across the surface. Plants with sparser, more uniformly distributed pubescence, of jointed hairs 1–2 mm, with a similar range but not extending quite so far n., have been called var. ambigua (A. Gray) Rydb. (P. ambigua; P. nyctaginea), but the difference is only doubtfully significant.

  • Common Names

    clammy ground-cherry