8. Physalis longifolia Nutt. (common ground cherry)

Pl. 565 g–i; Map 2630

Plants perennial, with deep-set, long-creeping rhizomes. Stems 20–60(–80) cm long, erect or ascending, unbranched or with few to several, ascending to loosely ascending branches, often purplish-tinged, glabrous or sparsely pubescent with short, upward-appressed, unicellular and few-celled, nonglandular hairs 0.1–0.5 mm long. Leaves short- to long-petiolate. Leaf blades 2.5–10.0(–13.0) cm long, lanceolate to ovate or elliptic-ovate, angled or tapered to a sharply pointed tip, broadly angled to rounded or more or less truncate at the base, the margins entire or sparsely and irregularly toothed, minutely nonglandular-hairy, the teeth mostly bluntly pointed, relatively shallow and broad, the surfaces green to dark green when fresh, drying uniformly green (lacking orangish tinging or patches), glabrous or sparsely pubescent with minute, appressed, nonglandular, mostly unicellular hairs. Flower stalks 5–20 mm long, becoming elongated to 15–35 mm at fruiting. Calyces (5–)7–12(–15) mm long at flowering, the lobes 3–6 mm long, the outer surface glabrous or sparsely pubescent with minute, appressed-ascending hairs at flowering, glabrous or very sparsely hairy 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 10–20 mm long, pale yellow to lemon yellow or yellow, the inner surface with 5 prominent purplish brown to bluish purple spots toward the base (these often merged into a ring or appearing smudged). Stamens with broad filaments about as wide as (or occasionally wider than) the anthers, the anthers 2–4 mm long, yellow, occasionally bluish-tinged or each anther sac with a bluish longitudinal line along the zone of dehiscence, arched but not coiled after dehiscence. Fruits 0.8–1.0(–1.5) cm long, green or yellow. 2n=24, 48. May–September.

Scattered nearly throughout the state (nearly throughout the U.S.; Canada, Mexico). Bottomland forests, mesic upland forests, banks of streams, rivers, and spring branches, bottomland prairies, swales in upland prairies, saline marshes, fens, margins of ponds and lakes, swamps, sloughs, savannas, bases and ledges of bluffs, and rarely glades; also ditches, pastures, fallow fields, crop fields, railroads, roadsides, and open to shaded, disturbed areas.

The two varieties accepted by most botanists exhibit considerable morphological overlap in Missouri.