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Vascular Plants of California
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Physalis
GROUND-CHERRY

Higher Taxonomy
Family: SolanaceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key

Common Name: NIGHTSHADE FAMILY
Habit: Annual to shrub. Leaf: generally simple, generally alternate, generally petioled; stipules 0; blade entire to deeply lobed. Inflorescence: various. Flower: bisexual; calyx lobes generally 5; corolla +- radial, cylindric to rotate, lobes generally 5; stamens 5, on corolla tube, alternate lobes; ovary superior, generally 2-chambered, style 1. Fruit: berry, loculicidal or septicidal capsule, [(drupe)], 2--5-chambered.
Genera In Family: 75 genera, 3000 species: worldwide, especially +- tropics; many alien weeds in California; many cultivated for food, drugs, or ornamental (potato, tomato, peppers, tobacco, petunia). Toxicity: many TOXIC. Note: Nicandra physalodes (L.) Gaertn. is a waif.
eFlora Treatment Author: Michael H. Nee
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.
Physalis
Habit: Annual from taproot or perennial herb from rhizome; hairs branched or not, glandular or not. Leaf: +- opposite or not, entire to pinnate-lobed. Inflorescence: flowers 1--few per axil, pedicelled. Flower: generally nodding; calyx 5-lobed, enlarged and persistent, bladder-like in fruit; corolla +- rotate to shallowly bell-shaped, generally +- yellow, often dark-spotted adaxially; stamens 5, attached to hairy band in tube, anthers free, generally < filaments, opening by slits; style generally straight. Fruit: berry, fleshy [dry]. Seed: many, 2--2.5 mm, +- spheric to reniform.
Species In Genus: +- 85 species: America, Eurasia, Africa, Australia. Etymology: (Greek: bladder, from calyx in fruit) Toxicity: Unripe fruit often TOXIC. Needs study in western United States. Note: Some species cultivated for edible or ornamental fruit.
Jepson eFlora Author: Michael H. Nee
Unabridged Reference: Sullivan 1985 Syst Bot 10:426--444
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
Key to Physalis

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Citation for this treatment: Michael H. Nee 2012, Physalis, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=9696, accessed on April 19, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 19, 2024.