Physalis

• WordNet 3.6
  • n Physalis ground cherries
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• • n physalis A genus of herbaceous plants, of the gamopetalous order.Solanaceæ and tribe Solaneæ, characterized by the five-angled, broadly bell-shaped corolla, and the five-or ten-angled bladdery fruiting calyx remotely inclosing the much smaller globose berry. There are about 30 species, mainly American, especially in Mexico (17 in the United states). They are hairy or clammy annuals or perennials, with sinuate leaves, and rather large flowers, solitary in the axils, violet, yellow, or white, often with a purple eye, and with yellow or violet anthers. Some yellow-flowered species have been cultivated for ornament. The two white-flowered species, once much cultivated in the United States for their edible berries, under the name of strawberry-tomato (which see), are P. Alkekengi, the winter-cherry of the south of Europe, with red berry and calyx (see alkekengi and bladder-herb), and P. Peruviana, with yellow berries (see alkekengi, winter-cherry
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