@UnicornEmily I am now fairly confident this is P. longifolia. This species and P. heterophylla are the two native perennials I have growing. This may be the only plant that sprouted this year from the roots.
There isn’t a Physalis thread that I could find so I’m posting here. I clearly need to prioritize saving seed for this and I’d be glad to send some to you assuming I can pull it off.
It is not growing in the safest location. I really ought to spread it around here at the same time I share it with other folks.
In a similar vein, my Physalis longifolia was heavily grazed. All the foliage and all but one immature fruit were eaten. The leaves are already growing back, I believe the plant will survive. I will plant to give it more attention and protection over the next year. At least one animal thinks it tastes great, I will take that as encouragement.
In spring, I was eyeing a scarlet globemallow that got mowed before it could make seeds. So yeah, I can relate with a beautiful, tasty, local wild mallow being destroyed by casual mowing!
That does seem very similar to my putative P. longifolia. I would like to see more wild physalis in circulation and it would be awesome if you could save seeds.
Oooh, nifty! Yeah, definitely save those seeds! Especially if the fruits are tasty. Even if it’s not longifolia, it’s a great Physalis that can grow wild here!
“The yellow-green fruit is edible. The fresh fruit “tastes like an effervescent, under-ripened strawberry”, and the dried berry “tastes like a cross between a raisin and dried cranberry.””
Under-ripe, ripe, over-ripe. All that had no color in the skin had been eaten out by insects. Lots of seeds, but they’re inconspicuous and don’t interfere. It’s an odd flavor, but I think I want more.
Pretty accurate. I wouldn’t have connected it to strawberry, but with the connection made I can see the similarity. It definitely has that “unripe” flavor, but without the astringency of an unripe strawberry.
About 300 ft up the road from the plant that I posted photos of earlier lies this small new colony. It is growing in the rut of a road that does get use. Why won’t this plant cooperate more hehe. I at least got a handful of fruit to try to save seeds from.
These photos portray what I believe is more or less the wild habitat for this species. I originally collected mine from my mom’s garden after she passed away but I suspect it was growing there as a weed
Flavor of one berry I tasted: Note of cherry tomato, sweet but with a different kind of sweetness than a cherry tomato.
I direct sowed some P. longifolia seeds right as the weather was getting warm this year, and it exploded and has supplied a continuous stream of fruits for months now. By far one of my favorite fruits, it has such an unusual flavor, somehow a little bit musky despite being really sweet. I will have quite a lot of seeds, and I’ll be growing way more of it this year.
Does it require fermentation for seed saving, like tomatoes? I want to make sure I’m saving high quality seed.
Answered my own question: no fermentation needed, you can blend them in a blender with water and strain out the seeds. Here’s the “Seed to Seed” book’s recommendation for saving seeds from Physalis sp.:
I have successfully used that technique with the blender. These seeds are smaller than even the smallest tomato seeds I’ve processed. I find their small size makes it a little fiddly dealing with them.
Whereas I only have a few fruits so far, I may slice them into pieces and dehydrate the pieces. With just a tiny amount of fruit in the past I haven’t yielded enough from the wet process to make it worthwhile. Maybe I will get some more fruit from these plants this year though.
In Dutch they’re called “pineapple cherry” (free translation ). They’re sweet, and a bit astringent at the same time. The first time I came across them was at a farmer’s market where the seller said ‘and they’re absolutely delicious when dipped in melted chocolate’. We ate ours as-is and processed some in a mirabelle-physalis jam.
So yeah, I can relate with a beautiful, tasty, local wild mallow being destroyed by casual mowing!
Even if it’s not longifolia, it’s a great Physalis that can grow wild here!
I can’t wait to try some.
). They’re sweet, and a bit astringent at the same time. The first time I came across them was at a farmer’s market where the seller said ‘and they’re absolutely delicious when dipped in melted chocolate’. We ate ours as-is and processed some in a mirabelle-physalis jam.
