SOLANACEAE (NIGHTSHADE FAMILY) 371 
VIRGINIA GROUND CHERRY 
Phisalis virginiana, Mill. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 
Time of bloom: July to September. 
Seed-time: Late August to November. 
Range: New York to Manitoba, southward to Florida and Louisiana. 
Habitat: Rich soil; fields, meadows, waste places. 
This plant is very variable, but is in all its forms a bad weed 
because of its fleshy, creeping rootstock. Stem eighteen inches to 
three feet tall, slightly angled, fork-branched, covered with ap-’ 
pressed hairs or sometimes nearly smooth or in some forms some- 
what glandular. Leaves long-ovate to lance-shaped, tapering at 
both ends, usually with a few roundish, irregular teeth on each side 
but often entire, rather thin, light green. Flowers more than a 
half-inch broad, the corolla sulfur-yellow with purplish brown 
spots, the stamens erect with deep yellow anthers; the calyx at 
first hairy but as it enlarges becoming nearly smooth, pyramidal- 
ovoid, five-angled, and deeply sunken around the peduncle. 
Fruit reddish, about a half-inch in diameter. 
Means of control the same as for Prairie Ground Cherry. 
PRAIRIE GROUND CHERRY 
Physalis lanceolata, Michx. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 
Time of bloom: July to September. 
Seed-time: Late August to November. 
Range: Illinois to Wyoming and New Mexico, southeastward to the 
Carolinas. 
Habitat: Dry soil; fields, meadows, pastures, waste places. 
Its deep, running rootstocks make this weed much more perni- 
cious than its annual relatives, for the ground cannot be rid of its 
presence until these are killed. Stem one to two feet tall, sparsely 
set with flat hairs, slightly angled, and at first upright but later 
diffusely branched and spreading on the ground. Leaves broadly 
lance-shaped to spatulate, usually obtuse, tapering to the petiole, 
entire or rarely wavy-edged. Flowers dull yellow with brownish 
