I found this thread interesting. A few years back a person in the area here had indicated that she no longer saw any of the wild ground cherries growing that they had used to pick and eat as children. And then I saw Philip's post about the purple tomatillo. I had no idea that tomatillo was physalis family. And then I did a search here in the database to see all in the physalis family and was quite surprised.
http://garden.org/plants/brows...
Last year I purchased some tomatillos at the farmer's market. I never got them used, even though a salsa recipe was given to me with the purchase. The lady I purchased them from said she never has to plant them now, that they come up every year. So I just tossed them in my garden when they had become spoiled since I didn't get them used. I now find after seeing Philip's post that they are purple tomatillos. I don't remember them being purple though when I purchased them last year, but mine mostly look like Philip's photo but I've been too busy to mess with them. I know I tried them a few weeks back, but I thought they were awful and bitter. But at that time they were not purple so I guess they were not ripe since I had to peel them out of the husk.
(I hope these won't cross with my chinese lanterns.)
