The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Physalis longifolia
Also called Long Leaf Ground Cherry, Common Ground Cherry, Common Groundcherry, Long Leaved Ground Cherry, Longleaf Ground Cherry, Long Leaved Groundcherry, Narrow Leaf Ground Cherry
Longleaf groundcherry is a perennial herb in the nightshade family, native to eastern Canada, much of the United States and northern Mexico, grown for its small edible yellow-green berries in husks. It is easy to grow in open, sunny spots with well-drained soil, though it can become a weed in some areas.
Physalis longifolia, known by the common names common groundcherry, longleaf groundcherry, and wild tomatillo, is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. It is native to North America, where it is native to eastern Canada, much of the continental United States, and northern Mexico. It has also been noted as an introduced species in other regions, including parts of the United States outside its native range. In some areas, such as California, it is an occasional noxious weed.
This species is a perennial herb growing 20–60 cm (7.9–23.6 in) tall with somewhat oval-shaped leaf blades 4–7 cm (1.6–2.8 in) long borne on petioles. Flowers occur in the leaf axils. The bell-shaped corolla is up to 2 cm (0.79 in) wide and is yellow with purplish markings around the center. The husk covering the berry is up to 3.5 cm (1.4 in) long with ten veins.
The yellow-green fruit is edible. The fresh fruit "tastes like an effervescent, under-ripened strawberry", and the dried berry "tastes like a cross between a raisin and dried cranberry." Native American groups used it for food. The Puebloan peoples called the fruits charoka and shuma charoka and ate them fresh or cooked.
Cutleaf groundcherry · Southwestern groundcherry · Cotztomatl · Strawberry-tomato · Ivyleaf groundcherry · Physalis nicandroides · Peruvian groundcherry · Tomatillo · Husk Tomato · Husk tomato · Starhair groundcherry · Groundcherry
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Physalis longifolia 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.
