Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Common ground-cherry

COMMON GROUND-CHERRY

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Physalis longifolia Nutt.

Russell County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 16-32 inches

Family: Solanaceae – Nightshade Family

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

Also Called:

Long-leaf ground-cherry.

Stems:

Erect, branched distally, glabrate or with simple, non-glandular, antrorse hairs.

Leaves:

Cauline, alternate, simple; petiole .4 to 2.4 inches; blade lanceolate, elliptic, or narrowly rhombic, lanceolate-ovate, or ovate, (.8)1.2 to 3.2(6) inches long, .3 to 2.2 inches wide, base cuneate, margins entire or sinuate-dentate, apex obtuse.

Inflorescences:

Flowers solitary, axillary. Pedicels .2 to .6 inch in flower, .4 to 1 inch in fruit.

Flowers:

Radially symmetric, nodding at anthesis; calyx campanulate, 5-lobed, .4 to .6 inch, sparsely antrorsely appressed-pubescent proximally, sometimes nearly glabrous, lobes .2 to .35 inch; corolla yellow, center dark-spotted, campanulate to nearly rotate, 5-angled to entire; stamens 5, included; .4 to .6 inch; anthers yellow, blue, or gray, .08 to .16 inch; pistil 1; style 1.

Fruits:

Calyx .8 to 1.2 inch, 10-angled, inflated; fruits berries, yellow to red, globose, .3 to .6 inch diam. Seeds numerous, reniform to ovate, somewhat flattened, minutely pitted.

Habitat:

Tallgrass, mixed-grass, shortgrass, sand, and sandsage prairies, woodland, stream valleys, roadsides, fields, waste areas.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

Native Americans used the berries for food (Moerman 1998).

Comments:

Physalis bladder, alluding to the inflated calyx and longifolia long and leaf. Physalis is a challenging genus due to variability within and among and subtle morphological differences among some species. Longevity, corolla and anther colors, and pubescence usually are needed for proper identification. Plants with yellow anthers, leaves lanceolate to elliptic or narrowly rhombic, thick and firm, and with margins mostly entire are var. longifolia; it occurs statewide. Plants with blue or gray anthers, and leaves lanceolate-ovate to ovate, thin, and with margins sinuate-dentate are var. subglabrata (Mack. & Bush) Cronquist; it occurs primarily east of the Flint Hills.

Common ground-cherry flower and anthers