a new study was conducted about the Phylogeny of Physalis with a viewable phylogenetic tree. This is useful if anyone wants to try interspecific crosses inside the genus
According to the tree, Tomatillos is closely related to perennial North American Physalis(Physalis longifolia, virginiana…) and still pretty closely related to Physalis grisea(ground cherry). Physalis Peruviana is quite distant from the rest which is surprising because I had the most succes when crossing to Physalis Peruviana(I have one full sized seed from Physalis Peruviana(f) x Physalis Virginiana that I will try to germinate next year in spring)
Maybe I wasn’t able to fertilize Tomatillos with pollen from other species because it is self incompatible and apparently self incompatible plants are more likely to reject pollen from other species. With cut style pollination I could maybe fertilize Tomatillos with Grisea/ Virginiana pollen to see if viable embryos will develop or how late they will abort.
I will also definitely try more pollinations between Physalis Peruviana(f) and Physalis Virginiana because this was the most succesful combination even though they are very distant according to the tree
I will also grow the wild species Physalis coztomatl and try to hybridize it with the other species; it is more closely related to Physalis Peruviana so they might be able to cross