Virginia ground-cherry

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Virginia ground-cherry

Virginia ground-cherry

Virginia ground-cherry fruit

Virginia ground-cherry

Virginia ground-cherry

Morphology

Stem

Erect, often branched distally, hairs simple, reflexed or retrorse, sometimes spreading distally on stem.

Leaves

Cauline, alternate, simple; petiole .12 to .8 inch; blade lanceolate to ovate or elliptic, 1.6 to 3.6 inches long, .28 to 1.8 inch wide, base tapered, margins entire to sinuately toothed, apex acute, surfaces with sparse to dense minute pubescence.

Inflorescence

Flowers solitary, axillary. Pedicels .2 to .8 inch in flower, .4 to 1.4 inch in fruit.

Flower

Radially symmetric, nodding at anthesis; calyx campanulate, 5-lobed, .25 to .5 inch, hirsute to hirsutulous, lobes .12 to .24 inch; corolla pale yellow, center dark spotted, campanulate to nearly rotate, 5-angled to entire; stamens 5, included; .4 to .8 inch; anthers yellow, sometimes tinged blue, .08 to .16 inch; pistil 1; style 1.

Fruit

Fruiting calyx 1 to 1.6 inch, 10-angled, inflated; fruits berries, yellow to red, globose, .4 to .6 inch diam. Seeds numerous, reniform to ovate, somewhat flattened, minutely pitted.

Ecology

Habitat

Tallgrass prairies, stream banks, roadsides, pastures, waste ground.

Distribution

East 1/2 of Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

Native Americans used the root to dress wounds and took an infusion of the whole plant for dizziness (Moerman 1998).

Additional Notes