Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_physalis_peruviana
Cape Gooseberry
Physalis peruviana
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About Cape Gooseberry
A softly woody hairy subshrub with alternate, sometimes unequally paired, heart-based leaves. Pale-yellow spreading flowers have purplish-brown basal spots. An enlarged inflated lantern-like calyx encloses a pale-yellow fleshy berry with numerous pale-brown disk-like seeds. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.
Kauaʻi evidence
Generated media is not occurrence evidence. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Physalis peruviana
- Common names
- Cape gooseberry · golden berry
- Hawaiian names
- pohā
- Other names
- Physalis peruviana · Cape gooseberry · golden berry · pohā
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-07
- Evidence limits
- Island-level public occurrence only. Use the pale-yellow ripe fruit described in the Hawaiian account; do not infer an intensely orange skin from cultivated selections.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Not yet assessed
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Shrub or subshrub; Soft wooded, short-lived shrubs to ca. 1 m tall, straggly with age; all parts densely pubescent with erect, simple or glandular hairs to 1 mm long.
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Occupied area and vegetation cover; Mature plants and new recruits; Reproductive plants and fruiting frequency. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
- Data gaps
- Current island extent and population trend · Measured local ecological effects
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- A softly woody hairy subshrub with alternate, sometimes unequally paired, heart-based leaves. Pale-yellow spreading flowers have purplish-brown basal spots. An enlarged inflated lantern-like calyx encloses a pale-yellow fleshy berry with numerous pale-brown disk-like seeds. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.