Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: July to September.

Seed-time: Late August to November.

Range: Nova Scotia to Ontario, and southward to Florida.

Habitat: Fields, roadsides, and waste places.

Brought to this country to be cultivated for ornament in gardens, but naturalized as a weed in many localities, particularly in the southern part of its range.

Stem rather stout, smooth, angled, two to five feet tall, erect and branching. Leaves long-ovate, rather thin, three to eight inches long and half as wide, obtuse, coarsely toothed on the outer half but entire where they taper abruptly to the short, grooved petiole. Flowers solitary on terminal and axillary peduncles, large, the corollas bell-shaped, pale blue or sometimes white with purple throats, nearly two inches in length, the lips scarcely at all lobed and flaring to about the same in width; stamens five, inserted on the corolla near its base, the filaments short, dilated and hairy at base; style slender with three to five-parted stigma and ovary with three to five - mostly five -cells; calyx at first small, composed of five joined segments, blunt arrowshaped, with conspicuous, backward-turned, acute auricles at base; these are beautifully net-veined, and enlarge so greatly as to quite enfold and conceal the fruit, which is a dry-seeded, inedible berry, about a half-inch in diameter. (Fig. 259.)

Fig. 258. -Prairie Ground Cherry (Physalis lanceolata). X 1/4.

Means Of Control

Prevent seed formation by close cutting or hand-pulling while the plant is in early bloom.