Family: Solanaceae
Physalis
Citation:
L., Sp. Pl. 182 (1753).
Derivation: Greek physalis or physallis, a bladder or a plant with a bladdery fruit covering, perhaps the Europaean P. alkekengi L., the winter cherry.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Plants annual or rhizomatous herbaceous perennial to subwoody short-lived shrubs; glabrous or pubescent with simple, forked, stellate or glandular hairs; leaves linear to broad-ovate, alternate, often geminate, petiolate.
Flowers solitary, pedunculate in leaf axils or stem forks; corolla campanulate to rotate with an expanded limb, mostly yellowish, often with darker spots towards the base; stamens 5; filaments attached near the base of the corolla tube; anthers oblong, opening by slits, yellow or bluish; ovary 2-celled, ovules numerous on enlarged placenta; style simple, erect.
Fruit a berry enclosed in the enlarged calyx tube; seeds lenticular, numerous. (Symon ( 1981 ) J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 3:149).
Distribution:
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More than 100 species well represented in North and South America wit. h a few species recorded from temperate and tropical Asia. Several species are cultivated for their fruit and are now adventive, while several others are weedy in tropical and warm temperate areas.
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
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1. Annuals or short-lived soft-wooded subshrubs sparsely or densely pubescent; hairs simple or glandular, never forked |
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P. peruviana 1. |
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1. Herbaceous perennials with a rhizomatous rootstock; tomentum of simple or forked hairs |
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P. viscosa 2. |
Author:
Prepared by D. E. Symon
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