− | Nicandra physalodes, Pers. (Atropa physalodes, Linn. Physalodes peruvianum, Kuntze. N. physaloides, Gaertn.). Known as Apple-of-peru, a strong spreading annual, 3-4 ft. high, grown for the showy blue fls. and odd frs.: glabrous: Lvs. elliptic or elliptic-ovate, sinuate and toothed, narrowed into a prominent petiole: fls. solitary in the axils, on recurving pedicels, an inch or more across, shaped like a potato flower, the corolla blue or bluish: fr. a thin-walled and nearly or quite dry berry, inclosed in an enlarged, strongly 5-winged calyx. B.M. 2458.—The apple-of-Peru is an old-fashioned garden annual, now rarely seen. It has escaped from cult, in some places in the U. S., and it is now widely distributed in the tropics. It is often confounded with the ground cherry and alkekengi, which are species of Physalis. | + | Nicandra physalodes, Pers. (Atropa physalodes, Linn. Physalodes peruvianum, Kuntze. N. physaloides, Gaertn.). Known as Apple-of-peru, a strong spreading annual, 3-4 ft. high, grown for the showy blue fls. and odd frs.: glabrous: Lvs. elliptic or elliptic-ovate, sinuate and toothed, narrowed into a prominent petiole: fls. solitary in the axils, on recurving pedicels, an inch or more across, shaped like a potato flower, the corolla blue or bluish: fr. a thin-walled and nearly or quite dry berry, inclosed in an enlarged, strongly 5-winged calyx.—The apple-of-Peru is an old-fashioned garden annual, now rarely seen. It has escaped from cult, in some places in the U. S., and it is now widely distributed in the tropics. It is often confounded with the ground cherry and alkekengi, which are species of Physalis. |
| + | Nicandra (Nicander, poet of Colophon, wrote on plants about 100 B.C.). Syn. Physalodes. Solanaceae. One Peruvian herb differing from Physalis chiefly in the 3-5-loculed ovary and dry rather than fleshy fr., and in the larger and more showy fls., of which the corolla is nearly entire. Lately a second species has been described, perhaps a variant. |
| + | N. violacea, Andre. Vigorous branched annual, glabrous or sometimes the Lvs. hairy on upper side: Lvs. subtriangular, the cauline reaching 10 in. long and 5 in. broad, coarsely toothed or lobed: fls. solitary, axillary and short-pedicelled; calyx large, dark violet on lower naif, the lobes cordate: corolla violet-blue above and white on lower half, campanulate, to 1½ in. broad. Probably S. Amer.—Distinguished from N. Physalodes particularly by the prominently blue corolla and calyx and similar color on the sts., petioles and peduncles, and the scattered colored hairs on upper surface of Lvs. |