Species

Physalis peruviana

Common Name(s)

Cape gooseberry

Family

Solanaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

PHYPER

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Herbs other than Composites

Habitat

Terrestrial.

Features

Herb, grows 15-200 cm tall, densely hairy. Flowers pale yellow with patches of pale purple towards base, January-December. Fruit 10-20 mm diameter orange, sweet and enclosed in a lantern-like persistent calyx. (DoC 1998)

Flowering

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Flower Colours

Violet / Purple,Yellow

Year Naturalised

1843

Origin

Tropical S. America

Reason For Introduction
Agricultural

Dispersal
Animals eat & disperse seeds (Webb et al., 1988). Birds (Colin Ogle, pers. comm.).

This page last updated on 18 Jan 2010