Small Flower Ground Cherry
Physalis cinerascens var. cinerascens
Native status unresolved in Louisiana. How scores work Is it native here?
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Will it fit your yard?No photograph yet. Looking for an old drawing…
At a glance
Not yet recorded · Height · Spread · Light · Soil · Life cycle · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 9 Louisiana parishes.
Who uses this plant?
13CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including LA
Genus host records with ranges including LA · Physalis
- Chloridea subflexaSubflexus Straw, Groundcherry Sun Moth
- Chloridea virescensTobacco Budworm Moth
- Diaphania nitidalisPickleworm Moth
- Estigmene acreaSalt Marsh Moth, Acrea Moth
- Helicoverpa zeaCorn Earworm Moth
- Herpetogramma pertextalisBold-Feathered Grass Moth
- Lineodes fontellaEastern Lineodes
- Lineodes integraEggplant Leafroller
- Manduca quinquemaculatusFive-Spotted Hawkmoth, Tomato Hornworm
- Manduca sextaCarolina Sphinx, Tomatoe Sphinx, Tobacco Hornworm
Show all 13
- Papaipema nebrisStalk Borer
- Spodoptera dolichosSweetpotato Armyworm, Dolichos Armyworm, Large Cotton Armyworm
- Strymon melinusGray Hairstreak
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
3Specialist beesPollen specialists
Pollen specialists · Physalis
- Colletes latitarsis
- Colletes willistoni
- Perdita halictoides
5BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim
Recorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim · Physalis
- Colinus virginianusNorthern Bobwhite
- Cyrtonyx montezumaeMontezuma Quail
- Meleagris gallopavoWild Turkey
- Ortalis vetulaPlain Chachalaca
- Tympanuchus phasianellusSharp-tailed Grouse
Direct food only: birds recorded eating this genus across North America. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening
Plant details
- Family
- Solanaceae
What its natural habitat tells you
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Conservation status
| Louisiana rank | SNR |
|---|---|
| Global rank | Not available |
| LA status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Will it fit your yard?
Check this plant against your county, sun and soil moisture. Conditions are checked in your browser.
Sources
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025)
- Louisiana occurrence source
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications