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habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
leaves, flowers and young fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
leaves with deeply toothed margins (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of pale yellow flower with brownish-coloured centre (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
stems and immature fruit borne on relatively long drooping stalks (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of immature fruit with angular covering (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
immature fruit with covering removed (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of seeds (Photo: Steve Hurst at USDA PLANTS Database)
young plant (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
the very similar annual ground-cherry (Physalis ixocarpa), with rounded fruit borne on relatively short stalks (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
Scientific Name
Physalis angulata L.
Synonyms
Physalis angulata L. var. angulataPhysalis ciliata SieberPhysalis minima L. (misapplied)Physalis minima L. var. indica (Lam.) C.B. Clarke (misapplied)Physalis indica Lam. (misapplied)Physalis parviflora R. Br.
Family
Solanaceae
Common Names
annual ground cherry, annual groundcherry, bladder cherry, bladderberry, bush tomato, Chinese lantern, Chinese lanternplant, cut leaf ground cherry, cutleaf ground cherry, cutleaf ground-cherry, cutleaf groundcherry, goose berry, gooseberry, ground cherry, husk tomato, Indian gooseberry weed, mullaca, native gooseberry, wild gooseberry, wild tomato, winter cherry
Origin
This species probably originated in tropical America, but is now widespread throughout tropical, sub-tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world (i.e. almost cosmopolitan).
Naturalised Distribution
This species is widely naturalised in northern and eastern Australia (i.e. in northern Western Australia, the northern parts of the Northern Territory, throughout most of Queensland, and in some parts of eastern New South Wales). It is occasionally also naturalised in south-eastern South Australia and south-western Western Australia, and possibly naturalised on Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands.
Notes
Wild gooseberry (Physalis angulata) is regarded as an environmental weed in Western Australia.