Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria

View additional distribution information on the Jepson eflora

Physalis hederifolia is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family known by the common name ivyleaf groundcherry. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it can be found in rocky, dry desert and mountain habitat. This is a rhizomatous perennial herb producing a hairy, branching stem 10 to 80 centimeters long. The gray-green oval leaves are 2 to 4 centimeters long and have smooth or bluntly toothed edges. The flowers growing from the leaf axils are bell-shaped and just over a centimeter long. They are yellow with five brown smudges in the throats. The five-lobed calyx of sepals at the base of the flower enlarges as the fruit develops, becoming an inflated, veined nearly spherical structure 2 or 3 centimeters long which contains the berry.

There are several wild varieties of this species.

Plant type

Perennial herb

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Color

Cream, Yellow, Brown

Flowering season

Spring, Summer

Water

Very Low

Soil drainage

Fast

Soil description

Prefers rocky, gravelly or sandy soil, such as decomposed granite.

Plant communities

Creosote Bush Scrub, Joshua Tree Woodland, Pinyon-Juniper Woodland

Caterpillars
Butterflies

Butterflies and moths supported

0 confirmed and 3 likely

Confirmed Likely

Salt Marsh Moth

Estigmene acrea

Corn Earworm Moth

Helicoverpa zea

Carolina Sphinx

Manduca sexta