About Physalis crassifolia Benth.
Physalis crassifolia Benth. is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family, with two common names: yellow nightshade groundcherry and thick-leaf ground-cherry. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in rocky, dry desert and mountain habitats. This perennial herb produces a ridged, angular, branching stem that reaches up to around 80 cm long, and the plant grows in a clumped, matted, or erect form. Its fleshy oval leaves measure 1 to 3 cm long, and have smooth, wavy, or bluntly toothed edges. The above-ground plant parts are glandular and covered in short hairs. Yellow flowers grow from the leaf axils; these flowers are widely bell-shaped, vaguely five-lobed, and measure around 2 cm across. The star-shaped calyx of sepals at the base of the flower enlarges as the fruit develops, turning into an inflated, angled lantern-like structure about 2 cm long that encloses the berry.
