Flora of New Zealand Series

apple of Peru

Herb 15-60-(200) cm tall; stems usually green, sometimes purplish black on exposed side. Lvs with lamina partly decurrent or attenuate on petiole, 4-17 × 2-12 cm, ovate or triangular-ovate, often lobed (especially larger lower lvs) or sinuate-dentate, glabrous except sometimes for main veins beneath; apex obtuse to acute; upper lvs often sinuate and entire. Pedicels puberulent, usually green, sometimes purplish black. Calyx 1.5-2 cm long at anthesis, broad-ovate, deeply divided, usually green, sometimes purplish black, very strongly accrescent; apex cuspidate. Corolla 3-3.5 × 2.5-4.5 cm diam.; lower tube white, with 5 small or large purplish markings, the upper part blue; lobes blue, shallow and rounded. Filaments hairy, with base surrounded by tuft of long hairs. Fr. 1-2 cm diam. Seed 1.5-2 mm diam., subreniform or ± irregular, brown, with alveolate testa.

N.; S.: a widespread and fairly common garden escape in most districts, but rarer in the southern South Id.

Peru 1883

Gardens, waste places, rubbish heaps, open, modified scrub, and occasionally in crops.

FL Jan-Dec.

N. physalodes is sometimes mistaken for a Physalis sp. and the 2 genera are related. However, Nicandra has campanulate blue fls followed by frs enclosed by a calyx with 5 very large wing-like ribs (Fig. 113), whereas Physalis spp. have rotate or shallowly campanulate yellowish fls with a dark basal patch, and frs which are always invested in an inflated calyx with 5 or 10 undeveloped ribs. In addition, the usual sp. in N.Z., P. peruviana, is a downy plant unlike the almost glabrous N. physalodes.

A 1905 record of Atropa physalodes for N.Z. probably refers to N. physalodes although the plant was referred to as a nightshade suggesting possible confusion with A. bella-donna.

Fig. 113. A-B Hyoscyamus niger, A fl., B fruiting calyx; C Nicandra physalodes, fruiting calyx. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X3S]