Introduction

[JohnF]

My name is John and I live in Maine-USA. I have been growing peppers for several years and am interested in the wild species. I don't know how many English speakers are on this forum--sadly, I know no other languages.

I would be interested to hear about others expeiences growing these peppers.

[bassino]

Hello John and welcome to Inferno. You came in to right place if wild peppers fascinates you. We have few people here who has quite a lot of information to share when it comes to wild species. Most of the content here in Inferno is in finnish, but some of the information, like this wild capsicum related article is to be translated someday. http://www.saunalahti.fi/~thietavu/Chili/L_wild.htm

[JohnF]

Hi bassino

Thanks. I have had that article bookmarked for a long time-even though I can't read it.

[Aji Inferno]

Hi, John - and welcome to Inferno!

We're right now translating the "Wild capsicums" page to English. The translation will, at first, be pretty simple - there's a huge amount of information to be handled... Still, it's something to start with. Already now you can see some info in English there, and by the end of this week, hopefully a lot more.

There should be no language barrier in this forum; all Finns learn English at school - so the only reason some Finn might not talk to you in your mother tongue, would be shyness!

Please, tell your friends to join here as well - this isn't meant to be a Finnish-only chili club, but a meeting place for all of us crazy enough to grow these lovely devils in our gardens, balconies and greenhouses!

[svalli]

Hi John,

Nice to see you found your way here. I have seen pictures of your awesome container garden at gardenweb.  

Your trade list is also incredible. Unfortunately I am still so novice with peppers, so I may have nothing interesting to trade with. I got my start for more interesting varieties than the normal gardening store offering  via this forum.

[JartsaP]

I'm not sure, but I have a strong feeling that this incredible gallery belongs to the starter of this thread?
http://www.pbase.com/chiles400
(I hope I didn't do anything wrong posting it here?)

I was searching for information about so-called "Miltomate" plants, I wasn't sure if they really belong to Physalis, then bumped into this gallery and there is the answer! Can't mistake, they're Physalis species all right. Excellent photos, especially flower photos and the fruit comparison pictures!

John here seems to share my passion for also other Solanaceae plants than chiles. I have grown/ am growing much of the same species...

[JohnF]

JartsaP

That's me and I don't mind you posting the link to my pictures. I'm glad they were useful to you and appreciate your comments. I used to keep written notes until I discovered digital photography which is a superior way to document my plants. It also helped me to see them more clearly and appreciate their beauty more. If you want to email  me I will tell you what else I have.

[Gekko]

Impressing  :shock:
I found this site once when trying to find some information about my C. praetermissums. Since then I've visited there regulary.

Miltomate, yet another spanish name, is usually a smaller, wild type of Physalis ixocarpa/philadelphica. Sometimes it is used as a synonym for tomatillo.

[JohnF]

Hi Gekko

You are correct about the names. One of the reasons for my grow out was trying to make sense of the name thing with the physalis and do some comparisons. . Here a husk cherry can also be called a tomatillo, cape goose berry, ground cherry, strawberry tomato, etc. And then you get into the Mexican names.

[bassino]

John's gallery is one of the websites I visit every now and then. Especially the flower pictures are value of gold. They are very informative and very aestethic too. Absolut chile art to me

[JartsaP]

Hi Gekko

You are correct about the names. One of the reasons for my grow out was trying to make sense of the name thing with the physalis and do some comparisons. . Here a husk cherry can also be called a tomatillo, cape goose berry, ground cherry, strawberry tomato, etc. And then you get into the Mexican names.

For some reason, Physalis seems to be one of the less documented genuses. I wonder why, it is after all quite common as both decorative and edible. Even here in cold north people grow P. alkekengii in flower gardens as perennial and even in smallest groceries you can find "pineapple cherries" (Cape Gooseberry, P. peruviana) fruits imported from South America. Tomatillos are also gaining ground in Finnish greenhouses and even outdoor kitchen gardens. So I wonder why botanists/taxonomists don't seem to be more interested in this versatile genus.  Many garden plant books mention these two or three species, but there are many more, and even searching the Web doesn't give full view of all of them. Same names are used of several species and vice versa - several names of the same species.

I also have a not-so-small germination problem: I have tried P. pruinosa seeds from at least three different sources, but failed to germinate them so far. I have used pretty much the same conditions for all Solanaceae plants, temperatures at day around 25-30C and night temp around 20-22C. Peat or "flower soil" mix.  I have tried both surface and normal underground sowing. Nothing seems to help. It is of course possible, that all these seeds have been too old or otherwise damaged, but not very likely. I am still waiting for the next batch of P. pruinosa seeds, and keep hoping that this time they'll be fresh enough. Another Physalis which I was not able to germinate was P. angulata, but I only had seeds from one source.

Then I have one species named "Physalis chinensis". Has any of you heard of such species? I have my doubts, I think it may be incorrectly named P. peruviana or maybe one of the North American wild species, but there's still a small chance that it turns out as something completely different.  Martin from Slovakian Gardeners Club KPR, who sent these seeds to me, descibed it: "P. chinensis is similar to P. peruviana, but its fruits are bigger - I did not measure it, bet let's say that P. chinensis fruits are about 1,5 cm big and P. peruviana are about 1 cm big. P. chinensis is also bigger in habit than peruv."

[Gekko]

I also was very confused about physalis species (this doesn't mean that I'm not now) so I made a simple table including latin names, synonyms and common names. It's not ready yet, and propably will never be, but I have already found it quite useful. I'll try to publish it somehow when I can find some time to edit it. P. chinensis is not in the list at all.

JartsaP, I couldn't germinate your pruinosa seeds either. I think those seeds really were bad.

Physalis species (at least best of them), by the way, taste so good that they really are worth growing, investigating and documenting.

[JartsaP]

I just remembered, that it is possible that I was able to germinate P. angulata after all... I thought I didn't, but in the end of last summer I found an unknown Physalis plant from greenhouse, it was growing in one of my chile pepper pots. I'm not sure, but it could be P. angulata... there's also a very small chance it might be pruinosa, but how to tell? It was a small plant with light yellow flowers and pretty small, very sweet and aromatic berries. I have no idea how it ended up in there, but I collected some seeds and I think I'll try it again this year or some other, just to see if it stays so compact also in better growing place (it  shared a small pot with one Birds Eye "bonsai" chile).

Take a look at the pictures here:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e212/jartsap/kuva414105.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e212/jartsap/kuva414104.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e212/jartsap/kuva414101.jpg

It also could be just P. peruviana under extreme conditions... normally peruviana is at least ten times bigger plant...

EDIT: John's P. pruinosa flower DOES look EXACTLY like my "mystery" Physalis flower, doesn't it: http://www.pbase.com/chiles400/image/31209249

EDIT2: But then again, also some P. angulata photos in Internet look just like both of those. This page is also quite confusing:
http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Physalis.html
It says down there in "notes" section, that P. angulata MAY be a synonym for P. pubescens - but it's uncertain. So it would be very interesting to know which names are synonyms and how do these species differ from each other. They all look similar to me... except maybe in some photos P. angulata seems to have darker veins in the husks, which seems to be missing from P. pruinosa. This could also be a difference of race or strain, not between species (there are very similar differencies between different tomatillo cultivars for example).

[Aji Inferno]

One thing about Physalis I didn't exactly love: they caused me bad allergic reactions - I couldn't continue growing them...  Those plants also appeared to be extremely vulnerable to insect damage. So, not the easiest ones to tame - but quite rewarding in the end, no doubt...

[Gekko]

It is difficult to trust this plantnames-site, too much information that differs from other sources.

It is hard to see how hairy Jartsa's Physalis was, but John's picture shows well how hairy pruinosa should be. I think this feature should identificate pruinosa from angulata. Please note that pruinosa has also been identificated as P. pubescens var. grisea and P. grisea (pubescens = hairy) although it shouldn't be mixed with P. pubescens var. pubescens, which is much smaller plant.

P. Angulata should be easy to identify becasue it has angled stems, blue-anthered flowers and black/purplish-nerved fruit calyx, almost like some purple tomatillos.

I've got Jartsa's mystery seeds also, so let's find out!  :wink:

[JartsaP]

Well, clearly there are hairs in my "mystery" plants stems, and it doesn't have blue anthers as far as I can tell by the pictures (I don't have the plant itself anymore). But yeah, I guess it's better to try and re-grow it this summer, and try to judge the species then. Quite simply peruviana, angulata and pruinosa are the only possibilities here, because I don't think I had grown any other small berried Physalis species by then. It cannot be tomatillo, that's for sure.  And we can line out peruviana by the habit, if we grow it in good soil and provide enough water. If it's peruviana, it will very probably reach the greenhouse ceiling in few weeks...