They're alive! In January! already!
maybe they'll be healthier this year?
Little itty bitty dune groundcherry (Physalis walteri) shoot(?sprout? idk) emerging from the roots.
Groundcherries are a type of nightshade, and the most commonly known one is the tomatillo! (Which can be very confusing because all groundcherries are sometimes referred to as tomatillos)
Dune groundcherry fruits are edible only once they're fully ripe! Which means the berry turns bright orange and the husk falls off the plant. Unlike "Goldenberries", (Physalis peruviana) which you can buy in fancy grocery stores, dun groundcherries don't have any tomato flavor at all. They actually taste kinda citrusy and sweet.
also I just realized there's only 915 observations of dune groundcherries on iNaturalist. and 90 of them are mine. of like, maybe six plants total. I thought there were more...
anyways, you can tell dune groundcherries apart from other groundcherries by their rounded, fuzzy leaves. Their flowers are yellow and naturally face towards the ground, and can be just pure yellow, or yellow with brown or black or very rarely white "honeyguide" markings!
if you find some, make sure it's properly identified before you go trying to eat it, obviously.
When it's spring/summer and these comes up more so they're easier to see, I'll make more identification videos for youtube and the web archive.
To save seeds from them, just get a ripe fruit, and a little bowl or cup of cool water, and squish the fruit in the water. The seeds will sink to the bottom, then you just change the water until it's clear, then let them dry on a paper plate, or plant them directly if you have somewhere to put them!
Most of the wild colonies we've found are growing right next to a marsh, but we also found some more just in normal dirt next to the road, and by the edge of the woods.
As the name may imply, they definitely like sandy soils, and can be found growing in the dunes at the beach!
If you ever go to Fort Pulaski National Monument, we found some there too in the grass around the base! Keep an eye out! You can clone them pretty easily from cuttings!
if I had a car there would definitely be more observations of them on iNaturalist >:)
[ID: A close up photograph of a small dune groundcherry stem just starting to emerge from the ground, with a white pointer and middle finger next to it for scale, showing the largest leaf is only the size of the cameraperson's fingernail. The leaves are light green with a yellow edge, and covered in fuzzy hairs. The rest of the ground is covered in mostly dried stems and leaves. End ID.]
