Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Physalis hederifolia
Common name
Prairie Ground Cherry, Sticky Cape Gooseberry, Sticky Ground Cherry
Family
Solanaceae
Where found
Weed of pastures, crops, and roadsides. Western Slopes. ACT.
Notes
Introduced perennial herb to 0.6 m high, rhizomatous. Fruit fleshy. Stems sparsely hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, the lower leaves to about 5 cm long and 30 mm wide, upper leaves often 2 per node and almost opposite each other, to 3 cm long and 1 cm wide. Tips pointed, bases wedge-shaped, margins toothed or wavy, sometimes entire. Flowers pale yellow, often with conspicuous olive-yellow blotches towards the base of the lobes, 11–15 mm long, with a short tube and 5 spreading lobes, or 5-angled. Flowers single in the leaf-axils and the forks of the stems. Flowering: summer–autumn. Fruit 10–15 mm in diameter. Fruiting calyx enclosing the fruit papery, dull yellow-green, drying to pale brown or straw-coloured, 10-angled, usually 15–20 mm long.
General Biosecurity Duty all NSW. General Biosecurity Duty with additional restrictions in the Murray and Riverina areas, NSW. Noxious weed Vic.
Was Physalis viscosa.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Physalis~hederifolia (accessed 31 January, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
