Prairie ground-cherry

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Prairie ground-cherry

Prairie ground-cherry

Morphology

Stem

Erect, branched basally, with abundant stellate or branched hairs mixed with few simple hairs.

Leaves

Petiole .2 to 1.2 inch; blade lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 1.6 to 3.2 inches long, .4 to 1.8 inch wide, base attenuate, margins entire to irregularly sinuate-dentate, apex usually acute.

Inflorescence

Flowers solitary, axillary. Pedicels .3 to 1.2 inch in flower, .8 to 2 inches in fruit.

Flower

Radially symmetric, nodding at anthesis; calyx campanulate, 5-lobed, .4 to 1.6 inch, with dense, spreading stellate or branched hairs mixed with simple hairs; lobes .12 to .2 inch; corolla yellow, center faintly or scarcely spotted, .5 to .8 inch; anthers yellow, .1 to .12 inch.

Fruit

Fruiting calyx inflated, loose-fitting around berry, 1.2 to 1.6 inch, 10-angled; berry globose, .4 to .6 inch diam.; seed numerous, reniform to ovate, flattened, minutely pitted.

Ecology

Habitat

Rocky tallgrass prairies, roadsides, oak-hickory woodlands, pastures

Distribution

East 1/2 of Kansas

Additional Notes