| Author | (L.) Gaertner | |
| Distribution | Mostly in the Mountains; also the northern Piedmont and Coastal Plain. First collected outside of cultivation in 1909 in Orange County.
Native of western S.A. (Argentina to Peru); in N.A. essentially throughout southern Canada and the U.S., except absent from the Southwest and most of the Rockies. | |
| Abundance | Uncommon to fairly common in the southern Mountains, generally rare elsewhere. | |
| Habitat | Cropfields, fields, weed in fill, farm weed, waste ground, garden weed, bottomland, disturbed lakeshore. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting July-October. | |
| Identification | Apple-of-Peru produces an ovoid fruit much like that of Physalis, enclosed in the papery calyx. Its leaves are irregularly cut into lobes and teeth, unlike the rather smooth or regularly toothed margins of Physalis. The flowers are bell-shaped, blue to lavender-blue (vs. dull yellow or white in Physalis spp.), and about 1 inch across. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | | |
| Other Common Name(s) | | |
| State Rank | SE | |
| Global Rank | GNR | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
