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Overview
This attractive perennial is distinctive for its superbly flavoured fruits that are surrounded by balloon-like, papery calyxes that look like Chinese lanterns.
The leaves are diamond shaped and white, and nodding cream flowers are borne from the middle of summer. It looks lovely when in flower and works well in slightly shaded positions.
Great for adding interest to garden beds and a terrific supply of unusual fruits that can be eaten raw or made into jams or jellies and tastes like a mix between pineapples and strawberries.
Can also be dried as a very tasty alternative to raisins which are also good baked in cakes.
Soil: They need a reliably moist, fertile, well drained soil.
Maintenance: It can take around 18 months for the best fruits to be borne in cooler climates - but in warmer climes expect good fruits in first season.
Cut back hard in autumn if it begins to get straggly.
Diseases: Caterpillars
Other Species: The cape gooseberry has many varieties including Giallo Grosso, Giant, Giant Poha Berry, Golden Berry and Golden Berry Long Aston.
P.peruviana is a very close relative to the Tomatillo from Mexico (P.ixocarpa) also known as the Mexican Green Tomato or Husk Tomato.
Comments: It is a rich source of vitamin C and A (as carotene).
The fruits are beautifully sweet and juicy.
If eaten raw, serve in the same way as strawberries, raspberries, apples or pears.
Cooked with apples and ginger they make a stunning desert and they are also great dipped in chocolate or pricked and coated in sugar crystals.
The fruit of Physalis peruviana have been used in traditional medicine all over the world as an antispasmodic, diuretic, antiseptic, sedative and analgesic.
Author: Bob Saunders.