3. Physalis angulata L. (cutleaf ground cherry)

P. angulata var. pendula (Rydb.) Waterf.

P. pendula Rydb.

Pl. 563 a–c; Map 2625

Plants annual, taprooted. Stems 15–80(–150) cm long, erect or ascending, with several to many, ascending branches, glabrous or sparsely pubescent toward the tip with short, upward-appressed, unicellular and few-celled, nonglandular hairs 0.1–0.5 mm long. Leaves moderately to long-petiolate. Leaf blades 2–12 cm long, narrowly to broadly lanceolate, elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or ovate, tapered to a sharply pointed tip, rounded to angled or tapered at the base, the margins relatively sparsely toothed (with 2–9 teeth along each side), minutely nonglandular-hairy, the teeth mostly sharply pointed, irregularly shallow and broad, the surfaces green when fresh, drying uniformly green (lacking orangish tinging or patches), glabrous or sparsely to occasionally moderately pubescent (more densely on the undersurface) with minute, appressed, nonglandular, unicellular or few-celled hairs. Flower stalks 7–17(–22) mm long, becoming elongated to 15–30 mm at fruiting. Calyces 3–5 mm long at flowering, the lobes 1–3 mm long, the outer surface glabrous or sparsely pubescent with minute nonglandular hairs (these denser along the lobe margins) at flowering, glabrous or sparsely hairy along the main veins and lobes at fruiting, at fruiting becoming elongated to 20–40 mm long, shallowly 10-angled or 10-ribbed, rounded to very shallowly concave at the base, mostly remaining green, occasionally pale brown to tan with age. Corollas 6–10 mm long, uniformly light yellow to lemon yellow, the inner surface occasionally slightly purplish-tinged toward the base. Stamens with slender filaments half as wide as the anthers or narrower, the anthers 1–3 mm long, blue or bluish-tinged, arched but not coiled after dehiscence. Fruits 1.0–1.5 cm long, green or yellow to orangish yellow. 2n=24, 48. May–September.

Scattered, mostly south of the Missouri River (southern U.S. north to California, Kansas, Illinois, and Virginia, north locally to Massachusetts; Mexico, Central America, South America, Caribbean Islands). Banks of streams and rivers, sloughs, margins of ponds, lakes, and sinkhole ponds, and moist depressions and disturbed portions of upland prairies; also ditches, levees, margins of crop fields, fallow fields, railroads, and moist, disturbed areas.

Steyermark (1963) followed Waterfall (1958) in recognizing two varieties of P. angulata in Missouri. Plants of western Missouri with narrower leaves, longer flower and fruit stalks, and slightly larger flowering and fruiting calyces having slightly longer teeth were segregated as var. pendula. J. R. Sullivan (2004) concluded that there was too much intergradation between such plants and those ascribed to the typical variety to allow recognition of infraspecific taxa in the species. She also discussed the difficulties in separating plants ascribed to var. pendula with those of P. acutifolia, noting that vegetative material could not be determined to species with confidence. Aside from the differences in the key above, the following characters are useful in separating P. acutifolia from P. angulata: a widely flaring, very flat corolla (vs. broadly bell-shaped to more or less saucer-shaped); fruit stalks averaging somewhat longer (25–60 vs. 15–40 mm); and a slightly smaller fruiting calyx that often is nearly filled by the enclosed berry.