| Dicotyledon | Literature for Nicandra physalodes
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999. |
| Solanaceae -- The Nightshade Family | Bibliography |
| Nicandra physalodes | |
Common name(s): apple of Peru |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Native to Peru, widely cultivated as an ornamental and now naturalized in many warm temperate and tropical areas.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i. | |
| Habit |
Erect annual herbs up to 2 m tall, glabrous or sparsely pubescent. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves narrowly to broadly ovate, 4-20 cm long, 2-10 cm wide, upper surface with sparse, short, inflated, eglandular hairs, lower surface glabrous or nearly so, margins widely, irregularly, and shallowly dentate or subentire, apex acute to acuminate, base cuneate to attenuate, petioles 2-6 cm long, narrowly winged above. |
|
| Flowers |
Pedicels 1-2 cm long, recurved; calyx lobes ovate, 1-2 cm long, apex acute to acuminate, base sagittate and often mucronate at basal tips, the lobes appressed along the margins to form longitudinal wings; corolla pale blue or mauve with a blue spot on the paler base of each lobe, the lobes 1-2.5 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm wide, margins entire, obtuse; style thick, erect, 3-6 mm long. |
|
| Fruit |
Berries pale yellowish, dryish, globose, 1-2 cm in diameter, enclosed in the accrescent, scarious, reticulate calyx. |
|
| Seeds |
Seeds numerous, subdiscoid to broadly reniform, 1.2-2.1 mm long, testa reticulate-foveolate. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = 18-22 |
|
| Notes |
Self-compatible |
|
