WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Erect and spreading, bushy plants reach 32-inches tall with branching stems. The yellow, bell-shaped flowers have dark smudges in the center, and yellow anthers. The small round berries develop in a paper-like sack with 10 ribs that may not form sharp ridges. Various Indian tribes ate the ripe, tomatillo-like fruit raw, cooked, and in sauces and relishes.

FLOWER: May–October. Growing from leaf axils on a 1/8–5/16-inch long (3–8 mm), drooping stem, the flower is hat-shaped, 7/16–5/8 inch wide (11–15 mm) with the brim (petals) often curled back. The 5 fused yellow to greenish-yellow petals have a dark-smudgy center, hairy edges, and yellow anthers. A round, fleshy berry, green maturing orange-yellow, 1/2-inch diameter (12 mm), forms inside an inflated, papery capsule 3/4–1 1/2-inches long (20–38 mm) with 10 angles or ribs.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades oval to heart-shaped with tip pointed, 1/2–2-inches long (12–50 mm); margins coarsely-toothed (usually) or entire, wavy; surfaces grayish-green with a covering of short hairs. Different varieties have simple, forked, star-shaped, or glandular hairs (use hand lens).

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, disturbed areas; foothills grassland-scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-Douglas fir forests.

ELEVATION: 3,300–8,300 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, KA, NE, NM, NV, OK, UT, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: About 10 species of groundcherries in NM including 3 varieties of Ivyleaf with different hair types. Longleaf Groundcherry, P. longifolia, nearly statewide, has a 10-ribbed fruit capsule, flowers with a dark center and blue or yellow anthers, and narrow, unlobed, hairless or minutely hairy leaves. Cutleaf Groundcherry, P. angulata, in central NM, is erect and hairless with sharp-pointed leaf lobes, purple anthers, and a 10-ribbed purple-streaked fruit capsule. Small-flowered Groundcherry, P. cinerascens, in eastern plains and prairies, has oval leaves, is covered with short, dense branched or star-shaped hairs, has yellow anthers and a fruit capsule with 5 ribs. New Mexico Groundcherry, P. subulata var. neomexicana, widespread in NM except for the eastern plains, has a 5-ribbed fruit capsule, foliage dense with glandular hairs, and flowers with purple stamens and anthers.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide except se plains in low- to mid-elevation, habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Guadalupe, Harding, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.