Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Purple ground cherry

PURPLE GROUND CHERRY

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Quincula lobata (Torr. ) Raf.

Barber County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 2-6 inches

Family: Solanaceae - Nightshade Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June, July, August, September

Also Called:

Plains chinese lantern.

Stems:

Prostrate or decumbent, much branched, ridged, very leafy, covered with microscopic, white, crystal-like bladders.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, stalked, oblanceolate to spatulate or elliptic, 1.5 to 4 inches long, .25 to 1 inch wide, somewhat fleshy, surface covering similar to stems; margins wavy.

Inflorescences:

Solitary flowers in leaf axils, stalks slender, .25 to 1 inch long.

Flowers:

Typically facing upward; calyces bell-shaped, 5-lobed, lobes triangular, tips pointed; corollas flat, wheel-shaped, .5 to 1 inch wide, deep or pale purple to bluish purple, throat often with purplish or reddish veins; stamens 5, anthers yellow.

Fruits:

Berries, spherical, greenish yellow, enclosed by inflated, papery, 5-sided calyx envelope; seeds few, dull, rough, yellowish brown.

Habitat:

Open prairies, roadsides, waste areas, canyons, and dry barren places, on sandy or gravelly soils.

Distribution:

West 1/2 of Kansas.

Uses:

Native Americans made jelly from the berries.

Comments:

Purple ground cherry forms low-spreading mats from rhizomes and is very drought resistant. The name "Chinese lantern" comes from the papery, lantern-shaped seedpod.

Purple ground cherry