Physalis angulataL.

Cut-leaved Ground-cherryLance-leaved Ground-cherrycutleaf groundcherry

WFO wfo-0001024566 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Physalis angulata, photographed by 雲一百香果
fig. a 雲一百香果, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205951269

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
01008467
Filed as
Physalis angulata var. angulata
Det. by
U. T. Waterfall 1966-01-01
Collected
J. R. Johnston 1914-02-14
Origin
PR
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 59 botanical countries

Regions where Physalis angulata is native: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Galápagos, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, Windward Is. AlabamaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaFloridaGeorgiaKentuckyLouisianaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestMississippiNew MexicoNorth CarolinaOklahomaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVirginiaArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSouthwest CaribbeanSurinameTrinidad-TobagoUruguayVenezuela ArubaBahamasCayman Is.GalápagosLeeward Is.Netherlands AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Physalis angulata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Aruba ARU
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Southwest Caribbean SWC
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
Arkansas ARK
California CAL
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Mississippi MSI
New Mexico NWM
North Carolina NCA
Oklahoma OKL
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Virginia VRG

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 603 in flower of 926 examined

Proportion of examined Physalis angulata in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 38 56 68% 55% to 79%
Feb 29 41 71% 56% to 82%
Mar 20 36 56% 40% to 70%
Apr 21 38 55% 40% to 70%
May 28 44 64% 49% to 76%
Jun 37 57 65% 52% to 76%
Jul 71 96 74% 64% to 82%
Aug 85 127 67% 58% to 75%
Sep 89 136 65% 57% to 73%
Oct 73 127 57% 49% to 66%
Nov 74 103 72% 62% to 80%
Dec 38 65 58% 46% to 70%

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Physalis angulata observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 603 of 926 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

When it blooms, where you are 1 state

StatePeaksObservations in flower
Texas Sep 66

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,010 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -1.1 °C 8.7 °C 23.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.8 °C 31.7 °C 38.4 °C
Annual rainfall 733 mm 1,337 mm 3,203 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 8 mm 187 mm 454 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 2,010 research-grade observations of Physalis angulata that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 28 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Boberella angulata (L.) E.H.L.Krause
  • Physalis angulata
  • Physalis angulata Ruiz & Pav.
  • Physalis angulata f. angulata
  • Physalis angulata f. linkiana (Nees) Stehlé
  • Physalis angulata f. ramosissima (Mill.) Stehlé
  • Physalis angulata f. tenuis Hassl.
  • Physalis angulata var. angulata
  • Physalis angulata var. capsicifolia (Dunal) Griseb.
  • Physalis angulata var. lanceifolia (Nees) Waterf.
  • Physalis angulata var. linkiana (Nees) A.Gray
  • Physalis angulata var. normalis Kuntze
  • Physalis angulata var. pendula (Rydb.) Waterf.
  • Physalis angulata var. ramosissima (Mill.) O.E.Schulz
  • Physalis capsicifolia Dunal
  • Physalis esquirolii H.Lév. & Vaniot
  • Physalis glaberrima Colla
  • Physalis lanceifolia Nees
  • Physalis linkiana Nees
  • Physalis linkiana var. linkiana
  • Physalis margaranthoides Rusby
  • Physalis margaranthoides Rusby
  • Physalis pendula Rydb.
  • Physalis ramosissima (Mill.) Stehlé

and 4 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.