Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
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Physalis hederifolia
Prairie Ground Cherry, Sticky Cape Gooseberry, Sticky Ground Cherry
Solanaceae
Weed of pastures, crops, and roadsides. Western Slopes. ACT.
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)
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