Purple ground cherry

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Purple ground cherry habit

Purple ground cherry

Purple ground cherry

Purple ground cherry

Purple ground cherry

Purple ground cherry flowers and leaves

Purple ground cherry leaves

Purple ground cherry flower

Morphology

Stem

Prostrate or decumbent, much branched, ridged, very leafy, covered with microscopic, white, crystal-like bladders.

Leaves

Alternate, simple, stalked, oblanceolate to spatulate or elliptic, 1.5 to 4 inches long, .25 to 1 inch wide, somewhat fleshy, surface covering similar to stems; margins wavy.

Inflorescence

Solitary flowers in leaf axils, stalks slender, .25 to 1 inch long.

Flower

Typically facing upward; calyces bell-shaped, 5-lobed, lobes triangular, tips pointed; corollas flat, wheel-shaped, .5 to 1 inch wide, deep or pale purple to bluish purple, throat often with purplish or reddish veins; stamens 5, anthers yellow.

Fruit

Berries, spherical, greenish yellow, enclosed by inflated, papery, 5-sided calyx envelope; seeds few, dull, rough, yellowish brown.

Ecology

Habitat

Open prairies, roadsides, waste areas, canyons, and dry barren places, on sandy or gravelly soils.

Distribution

West 1/2 of Kansas.

Practical Information

Uses

Native Americans made jelly from the berries.

Additional Notes