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Yellow and Orange Wildflower Gallery

Nightshade

Solanaceae - Nightshade family (Potato family)

Buffalo-bur Solanum rostratum

Flower about 1" wide.  Yellow, banana-shaped anthers spread apart, one is often wider and darker.  Fruit are covered in long spines.  Leaves are deeply lobed to the midrib, rounded.  Plant grows to about 12" tall and is wider than tall.  Long thin thorns cover the stems.

Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, April 2004

(Native of Texas)

see similar     Horse Nettle

Solanaceae - Nightshade family (Potato family)

Clammy Ground-cherry Physalis heterophylla (P. ambigua, P. nyctaginea, P. sinualta)

Flower about 1/2"-3/4" wide, yellow/green with large burgundy center star.  Flower often grows face down.  Leaves are fuzzy.  Plant shown is 18" tall.  Bracts lengthen and join to form a loose bell (Chinese lantern) for the seed.

Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, April & June 2005

(Native of Texas)

Solanaceae - Nightshade family (Potato family)

probable  Beach Ground-cherry (Smallflower Ground-cherry) Physalis cinerascens var. cinerascens

Flower about 1/2"-3/4" wide, yellow/green with burgundy center star.  Flower grows face down.  Leaves are fuzzy, very fuzzy when small.  Bracts lengthen and join to form a loose, five sided bell for the seed, 1/2" long.  Sprawling to mounding plant, 4 feet wide and 18" tall.

Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, April & September 2005

(Native of Texas, Taylor, Nolan, Callahan, Brown)

Hunting Similar Species

Cutleaf Ground-cherry (Southwest Ground-cherry, Lanceleaf Ground-cherry, Purple-vein Ground-cherry) Physalis angulata (P. lanceifolia, P. pendula)

Tiny flower with light brown center, large bell.  Teeth on leaves are large.

(Native of Texas, Brown)

Very similar  Heartleaf Ground-cherry Physalis hederifolia (P. fendleri, P. hederifolia var. cordifolia)

Center can be light to dark brown.  Petal edges are often rolled back.  Heart shaped leaves.

(Native of Texas, Taylor)

Long-leaf Ground-cherry  Physalis longifolia

Flower is bell shaped.  Maroon center.  Bracts of fruit bell turn orange.

(Native of Texas, Taylor)

Starhair Ground-cherry (Prairie Ground-cherry) Physalis viscosa

Flowers more tubular.  Leaves have wavy edge.  Hairs spread in a star.

(Native of Texas, Jones)

Solanaceae - Nightshade family (Potato family)

Woolly False Nightshade Chamaesaracha villosa

Light greenish-yellow flower about 3/4" wide with no maroon marks on petals.  Leaf 1"-2" long with big teeth or deep notches, lightly fuzzy.  Sprawling plant about 10" wide.  In wet areas it can grow to 12" high and two feet wide.  Plant continues into produce flowers through the summer; they are smaller.

Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, April 2004, September 2005

(Native of Texas)

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