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Physalis angulata
Also called Cut-leaved Ground-cherry, Lance-leaved Ground-cherry, Cut Leaf Ground Cherry, Angular Winter Cherry, Lanceleaf Groundcherry, Balloon Cherry, Gooseberry
Cutleaf groundcherry is a fast-growing annual herb in the nightshade family, grown for its small edible fruit wrapped in a papery lantern-like husk. It thrives in warm, sunny conditions and reseeds readily.
Physalis angulata is an erect herbaceous annual plant belonging to the nightshade family Solanaceae. Its leaves are dark green and roughly ovate, often with serrate margins. The flowers are five-sided and pale yellow; the yellow-orange fruits are borne inside a balloon-like calyx. The exact native range is uncertain. The species may be naturally endemic to Australia or the Americas or the native range may encompass both the Americas and Australia. It is now widely distributed and naturalized in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide.
The plant produces edible fruit that can be eaten raw, cooked, jammed, etc. However, all other parts of the plant are poisonous. Members of the Toba-Pilagá ethnic group of Gran Chaco traditionally eat the ripe fruits raw.
Southwestern groundcherry · Cotztomatl · Strawberry-tomato · Ivyleaf groundcherry · Longleaf groundcherry · Physalis nicandroides · Peruvian groundcherry · Tomatillo · Husk Tomato · Husk tomato · Starhair groundcherry · Groundcherry
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Physalis angulata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
