It has cute little yellow flowers that face downward and little lantern like things hanging down also. I will try and get a picture of the flowers if that would help in finding what it is....Here are the pictures
Looks like Physalis sp. Common name Chinese lanterns. http://images.google.com/images?q=p...1I7SUNA_en-GB&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi http://images.google.com/images?hl=...&q=physalis flowers&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
Its not actually a weed, Its a green Tomato plant or as we call them in Mexico Tomatillos. If you water it well they can grow virtually standing up in water then the green tomato's will develop inside those green jackets or as Silver Surfer calls them lanterns and it will fill the whole jacket. When they get to the size of a normal tomato you can harvest them, peel off the jacket and wash the green tomato, they have a very soapy substance that you need to wash off before you can cook them, then toast them slowly on a metal plate with some halves of onion and some garlic cloves, and green chillies put them in a bowl once toasted add a bit of water and lots of corianda and then liquidize the lot and you have mexican green salsa for your taco's delicious!! Nath
Nath, I had heard of Tomatillo.... never seen then. I had no id that they are Physalis philadelphica. I just love this site. Something new to learn every day. Thank you.
I grow them every year here in the UK as its the only way to get Green Tomato's here and to make the salsa that is the basis for so many Mexican dishes. They will grow almost anywhere in any type of soil but love wet peaty type compost most of all. Well worth trying and I beleive that Amazon now sell the seeds. Nath
Oh my gosh! are you kidding me!! i never thought that they would grow i dont know how it ended up right there lol. Thank you so much! <3
There are Physalis species native to California, and others grown in gardens sometime pop up. Several species have small yellow, sweet fruits (sometime found in markets as Cape gooseberry, golden berry), P. alkekengi has orange/red fruit. Can't help myself from adding this self promoting link: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/potd/2005/07/physalis_sp.php
[/ATTACH]Of course if you want to grow them again next year you can remove one of the green tomato's seeds let them dry out and save them to be planted in Febuary and then they should be ready for repotting by early April, you can then transfer them to the green house or stake them in the Garden. Mine are over 6 feet tall now though here is a picture I took a couple of weeks ago, I let them grow in and out of my normal varieties of red tomatoes. You can see the shape of the leaves are different just like in your picture, and on the other photeo they are growing at the back of the greenhouse to the top right hand side of the picture all in flower. Nath
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/tomatillos.htm http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/1492/tomatillo.html You will need to scroll all the way down on this one for the pictures http://www.answers.com/topic/tomatillo
Thank you very much im glad i didn't pull it up when i seen it. I didn't know what it was but i thought it was very pretty. Thank you for all the info! :)
The height depends on how tall your canes are, how much you feed them and you need to keep tying them every 6 inches or so. In Mexico in the fields the farmers stretch wires across posts and grow them up the posts or strings and then train them to grow laterally accross the wires like a vine. Enjoy your harvest when you get it. Nath
Tomatillos are very prolific as well. I grow green ones as well as the yellow and purple varieties in the southeastern U.S. Every spring I have litterally hundreds of them spring up from the ground from fruits that I didn't get harvested the year before. I pull the vast majority of them of course! It's truly amazing where you'll find them growing...I regularly pick them out of my hard packed gravel driveway that abuts one of my growing areas. As Nath pointed out, they are the basis for that wonderful salsa verde. 8 plants usually produce enough fruits for me to make about 24 jars. I also make a rather tasty jelly from them...The purple de milpa variety produces a lovely dark reddish purple color. Hope you enjoy your newly discovered plant!
