Physalis subglabrata

This perennial herbaceous plant is up to 3½' tall, but it is usually only 1¼–2½' tall. Smooth Ground Cherry branches frequently, creating a bushy appearance. Some of the lower branches may sprawl along the ground, otherwise they are ascending. The stems are light green or light purplish green, more or less angular, and glabrous to sparsely short-pubescent. Leaves occur throughout the length of these stems; they are alternate to nearly opposite. The leaves are up to 5" long and 3" across, although they are usually closer to one-half of this size; they are yellowish green to dark green and broadly lanceolate to oval-ovate in shape. The leaf margins are entire (toothless) and often slightly undulate; sometimes they have 1-2 shallow rounded lobes. The leaf bases are rounded and often oblique (one-half of a leaf base extending lower than the other). Leaf venation is pinnate with slightly incurved lateral veins. The petioles are ¼–¾" long, light green, and glabrous to sparsely short-pubescent. Solitary drooping flowers develop from the axils of the middle to upper leaves, especially where the stems dichotomously branch. The slender pedicels of these flowers are ¾–1" long, light green to light purplish green, and sparsely short-pubescent. Each flower is about ¾" long and similarly across when it is fully open, consisting of a pale yellow corolla with 5 very shallow lobes, a green calyx with 5 deltate-cordate teeth, 5 stamens with yellow or purplish yellow anthers, and a pistil. The interior of the corolla has 5 purplish brown patches that surround the reproductive organs. The calyx has 5 vertical ridges that are sparsely short-pubescent, otherwise it is glabrous. Each lobe of the corolla is slightly pointed in the middle. The blooming period occurs from mid-summer to early autumn, lasting about 1½ months. Buds, flowers, and fruits can be found simultaneously on mature plants. The flowers are replaced by husked fruits that are about 1" long, 1" across, and obcordoid-globoid in shape. The husks of these fruits are initially light green, but they later become tan-colored and papery; each husk has 10 fine vertical ridges that are light green to purple. The husks are rounded and slightly indented where they join the pedicels, while their tips are pointed. Each husk contains a single berry. At maturity, the berries are about ½" across, yellow, smooth, and globoid in shape; they have fleshy interiors that contain many seeds. The small flattened seeds are 1.5–2 mm. long and a little less across; they are pale yellow and short-reniform in shape. The root system is rhizomatous, from which clonal offsets develop (Illinois Wildflowers).