Among species in Physalis and related genera, Carpenter's groundcherry is believed to be most closely related to Alkekengi officinarum (formerly Physalis alkekengi).[6]
Uses
The
Plants for a Future project notes that Calliphysalis carpenteri belongs to a
genus which includes members with
poisonous leaves and stems, although the fully ripe
fruits are usually edible, and give it an
Edibility Rating of 2 out of 5, with no
medicinal value or other uses noted.[2]
References
^
abPer Axel Rydberg. 1896. The North American species of Physalis and related genera. Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club 4: 297-374; 330, citing Riddell, John L. 1853. New and hitherto unpublished plants of the Southwest, mostly indigenous in Louisiana. New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal 9:609-618.
^
abReginald S. Cocks: "William M. Carpenter, A Pioneer Scientist of Louisiana" in Tulane Graduates' Magazine, Vol. 3, January 1914, pp. 122-127, reprinted in February 1914 by the author as a booklet published by Tulane University Press under the same title,
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044106372303;view=1up;seq=12, last accessed 1 Dec 2018.
^Maggie Whitson. 2012. Calliphysalis (Solanaceae): A New Genus from the Southeastern USA. Rhodora 114(958):133-147,
https://doi.org/10.3119/11-10, abstract and partial text at
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23314732?seq=1/analyze; "The story of Physalis carpenteri begins with John Leonard Riddell, a medical doctor, inventor, and botanist best known for work in the western US and Ohio. Spending the latter part of his career in New Orleans, he began work on a flora of Louisiana. His colleague,
William Marbury Carpenter, collected many specimens used for the project. Both men were professors at what would become
Tulane University."