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An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Physalis pubescens; photograph (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-15

Physalis pubescens L.

Low ground-cherry; Ground cherry; Husk-tomato; Downy ground-cherry

Solanaceae · Albania, Iowa +68

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Physalis pubescens, photograph (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY)Physalis pubescens, photograph (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY)Physalis pubescens, photograph (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY)Physalis pubescens, photograph (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY)Physalis pubescens, photograph (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY)Physalis pubescens, photograph (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY) 99 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
6.7°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,202mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
21–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Physalis pubescens is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family known by many common names, including husk tomato, low ground-cherry and hairy groundcherry in English, and muyaca and capulí in Spanish. It is native from Brazil, but also found in southern half of the United States, Mexico, Central and much of South America. It can be found elsewhere as an introduced species and sometimes a weed. It can grow in many types of habitat, including disturbed areas. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Physalis pubescens", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Physalis

Physalis is a genus of approximately 75 to 90 flowering plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae), which are native to the Americas and Australasia. At least 46 species are endemic to Mexico. Cultivated and weedy species have been introduced worldwide. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Physalis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (822 mm of 1,086 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 14.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

Rain

1,086 mm in the median year at the habitat, 822 mm of it April to November. Wettest month June at 119 mm, driest month January at 59 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 509 mm to 1,990 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,202 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,086 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -3.2 °C to 19.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.6 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 6.7 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Physalis pubescens through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 6.7 °C; 1,086 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 21–40RH 56–60%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 528 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C18 / 6–2620 / 8–2722 / 14–2925 / 19–3128 / 23–3230 / 24–3331 / 23–3430 / 23–3428 / 22–3125 / 19–2921 / 13–2819 / 7–27
Night °C7 / -3–198 / -2–2010 / 3–2114 / 8–2217 / 12–2321 / 14–2422 / 14–2522 / 14–2520 / 14–2415 / 10–2211 / 5–218 / -1–20
Rain mm59 / 20–13562 / 12–13572 / 7–13373 / 6–127108 / 7–157119 / 22–260116 / 52–288107 / 59–297112 / 66–325103 / 35–23684 / 14–17671 / 15–152
DLI22 / 15–3327 / 20–3733 / 27–4337 / 33–4840 / 36–5140 / 34–4940 / 33–4437 / 33–4132 / 29–3828 / 22–3524 / 15–3221 / 13–31
RH %58 / 51–6658 / 49–6556 / 47–6456 / 45–6458 / 45–6560 / 48–6760 / 54–6860 / 54–6860 / 55–7058 / 53–6858 / 52–6759 / 52–67

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1013 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -9.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.9 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 528 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (583 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1406:1656 (19.675, -97.175). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 528 distinct grid cells holding 583 of the 586 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1406:1656 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.50_-96.875, lapse-corrected +1013 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2146 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlbania, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay · introduced: Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy, Romania, Central European Russia, Ukraine, Morocco, Benin, Gambia, The, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Mozambique, Primorye, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Christmas I., Victoria, Western Australia, Illinois, Mississippi, District of Columbia, Bermuda · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker36.297, -93.958 · in the densest population, 234 records (18% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or biennial” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1294 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 583 of them in the land cells it reads, of 586 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 913 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1845 km away. 323 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 708 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1294 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Physalis pubescens, photograph 1did not loadPhysalis pubescens, photograph 2did not loadPhysalis pubescens, photograph 3did not loadPhysalis pubescens, photograph 4did not loadPhysalis pubescens, photograph 5did not loadPhysalis pubescens, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Muhlenbergia capillaris Muhlenbergia capillaris Hairy-awn muhly Photo: CC BY, floatingturkeySetaria parviflora Setaria parviflora Knotroot bristle-grass Photo: CC BY, Samantha KnightCyperus odoratus Cyperus odoratus Fragrant flatsedge Photo: CC BY, Lillian FariaHydrocotyle verticillata Hydrocotyle verticillata Whorled marshpennywort Photo: CC BY, scallionsHeteranthera limosa Heteranthera limosa Blue mud-plantain Photo: CC BY, Chris StahlEclipta prostrata Eclipta prostrata False daisy Photo: CC BY, Mitul and Vijul Singh

Other Physalis 22 in the reference

Physalis acutifolia Physalis acutifolia Wright's ground-cherry Photo: CC BY, Sula VanderplankPhysalis angulata Physalis angulata Cut-leaf ground-cherry Photo: CC BY, Tanner ShepardPhysalis angustifolia Physalis angustifolia Coastal groundcherry Photo: CC0, author not statedPhysalis arenicola Physalis arenicola Cypresshead groundcherry Photo: CC0, author not statedPhysalis cinerascens Physalis cinerascens Smallflower groundcherry Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezPhysalis cordata Physalis cordata Heartleaf groundcherry Photo: CC0, author not statedPhysalis coztomatl Physalis coztomatl Cotztomatl Photo: CC BY, Guillermo Huerta RamosPhysalis crassifolia Physalis crassifolia Yellow nightshade groundcherry Photo: CC BY, Xochitl ZambranoPhysalis grisea Physalis grisea Strawberry-tomato Photo: CC BY-SA, Lauren HPhysalis hederifolia Physalis hederifolia Ivyleaf groundcherry Photo: CC BY, Samuel BucknerPhysalis heterophylla Physalis heterophylla Clammy ground-cherry Photo: CC0, author not stated Physalis ixocarpa Solanaceae all 23 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Alicabon barbadense; Alkekengi procumbens; Alkekengi villosa; Boberella pubescens; Physalis angustiloba and 33 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Physalis latiphysa: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

Under another author Physalis heterophylla Colla is an older name of this species, not Physalis heterophylla, a species of the reference; Physalis viscosa Elliott is an older name of this species, not Physalis viscosa, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Albania, Iowa, Kansas +67
Wild records
1294 in range · 913 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 40 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (27 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 12 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.50_-96.875, lapse-corrected +1013 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1013 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 250 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…