Flora of North America species comparison

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Physalis mollis

field groundcherry
Habit Herbs perennial, rhizomatous, rhizomes deeply buried, stout, often also with shallowly buried, slender rhizomes, densely pubescent, hairs dendroid-stelliform, to 1 mm, obscuring plant surface on younger growth, occasionally also jointed, branched or simple, 2–4 mm, glandular or eglandular.
Stems

erect, branching occasionally, branches ascending, 1.5–5 dm.
Leaves

petiolate;

petiole 1/3–4/5 blade;

blade ovate, 2.5–7 × 1.5–6(–7) cm, base truncate, margins coarsely dentate or irregular to ± entire.
Pedicels

10–25(–35) mm, 20–40(–52) mm in fruit.
Flowers

calyx 6–10(–12) mm, lobes 2.5–5.5 mm;

corolla yellow with 5 pale to dark brown smudges or dark purple-black spots, campanulate-rotate, 9.5–15(–17) mm;

anthers yellow, rarely blue- or purple-tinged, not twisted after dehiscence, 3–4 mm.
Fruiting calyces

loosely enclosing berry, 10-ribbed, 25–40(–50) × 15–35 mm.

Physalis mollis
Distribution
from USDA
sc United States
[WildflowerSearch map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Plants eglandular; corolla with pale to dark brown smudges.
var. mollis
1. Plants glandular; corolla with deep purple-black spots.
var. variovestita
Source FNA vol. 14.
Parent taxa Solanaceae > Physalis
Sibling taxa
P. acutifolia, P. angulata, P. angustifolia, P. arenicola, P. caudella, P. cinerascens, P. cordata, P. crassifolia, P. fendleri, P. grisea, P. hederifolia, P. heterophylla, P. lanceolata, P. longifolia, P. missouriensis, P. neomexicana, P. philadelphica, P. pubescens, P. pumila, P. solanacea, P. virginiana, P. walteri, P. ×elliottii
Subordinate taxa
P. mollis var. mollis, P. mollis var. variovestita
Synonyms P. viscosa subsp. mollis
Name authority Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 5: 194. (1836)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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