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:  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.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Annuals or short-lived soft-wooded subshrubs sparsely or densely pubescent; hairs simple or glandular, never forked	P. peruviana 1.
1. Herbaceous perennials with a rhizomatous rootstock; tomentum of simple or forked hairs	P. viscosa 2.

Author: Prepared by D. E. Symon