PURPLE GROUND CHERRY
File Size: 86 KB
 
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.

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