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Apple of Peru (Nicandra physalodes)

Apple of Peru Common Names: Apple-of-Peru, Chinese lantern, Peru apple, shoo fly, shoofly, shoo-fly plant, shoofly plant, shoofly-plant, shooflyplant, wild gooseberry, wild hops

Description: Introduced as an ornamental and is also known to have medicinal and insecticidal properties.

Habit: Large, annual herb.

Leaves: Alternate, simple and irregularly toothed on the margin.

Flowers: Axillary, nodding, short bell-shaped, pale blue in color.

Fruit and seeds: Dry berry enclosed by an enlarged, papery calyx.

Habitat: Native to western South America. Can be found in disturbed sites, waste areas, roadsides, gardens, stream/river banks, and forest margins.

Reproduction: By seed.

Monitoring and rapid response: Tilling, hoeing or handpulling small infestations is effective. Usually the use of herbicides is not necessary.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from BioNet-EAFRINET and North Carolina State University.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org). Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).


Common Name:

Apple of Peru

Scientific Name:

Nicandra physalodes

Family:

Solanaceae
(Potato)

Duration:

Annual

Habit:

Herbs

USDA Symbol:

NIPH