About
A large and diverse genus of annuals, perennials and subshrubs from warm-temperate and tropical America with small, alternate leaves and solitary, nodding, bell-shaped flowers in the leaf axils followed by fleshy, sometimes edible berries enclosed in a large, conspicuously inflated and often brightly coloured papery calyx. Several species, including P. peruviana (Cape gooseberry), are grown for their edible fruits; others are ornamental.
About the genus
A genus of shrubs, scrambling vines and more rarely, small trees found in arid regions of the world such as northern Africa and southern Europe, containing the therapeutic chemical Ephedrine, which can also have numerous negative effects on the human body. Plants have slender, green, scaley, rush-like stems and produce small 'cones' followed by bright red or orange berries
Plant details
Care notes