Does anyone know where I could acquire physalis missouriensis seeds before next spring? I can’t seem to find them anywhere and iNaturalist shows some a few hours away but the observations were not from this year so I wouldn’t know if they successfully reseeded until I spend the $100 in gas to get there and back.
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That is a very rare ground cherry local to thst area only so it will be very hard to find outside the area Physalis missouriensis page
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what’s the difference between these and the ground cherry sold at Baker’s seeds besides names? i grew P. peruvialis, cape gooseberry last summer also. bigger berries and very tasty.
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Based on the photos in Clark’s link, I’d say these have much smaller fruit with a lot more seeds. It doesn’t say anything about flavor, though.
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is it a cold hardy ground cherry?
I found very few ground cherry that are cold hardy but there are some in north America that should taste good too. ( Physalis heterophylla )
But no seeds available here
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I saw the fine print at the bottom of the page citing the photos were taken in the St. Louis area (where I am also located), which is Z6a/b. We get down to -5F at least once or twice each winter but have long, hot summers getting up to 100F+ for several days or weeks. My guess is that the cold hardiness of this species is negligible since they are annuals, but maybe they are just enough to make a difference.
One thing for sure is those seeds are much larger than the seeds in the Hanover and Molly’s I grew last year, so they might not be as desirable to eat fresh. I’m just hoping they are more drought/disease resistant while still tasting good, and also it is kinda cool growing native plants.
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try the cape gooseberry. got the seeds for it off Esty. it grows huge and produces alot of bigger fruit than ground cherry until the frost kills it. it takes longer to grow so i started mine indoors in may and put them out in mid june. had some grow to 6ft with support of a tomato cage in 15gal. pots. they may even overwinter in your climate. like ground cherry if you let them reseed you will likely have them come back on their own. these will replace my ground cherry next summer. so much easier to harvest.
what country are you in? rareseeds.com has ground cherry. they arent cold hardy but readily reseed themselves. they may survive winter in your zone. id highly recommend its cousin the cape gooseberry from Peru. much bigger tastier fruit on a bigger bush.
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I didn’t know it was an annual plant.
I was hoping it would be one of those rare longer living physalis that are cold hardy
thanks for the link. I’ve ordered from them before, but seeds from the internet for rare varieties is often a gamble if they actually germinate.
i have few cape gooseberries and tomatillos and physalis coztomatl.
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