70–80 days. Small cups hold yellow bell flowers with dark spots. After the flower falls, a protective, papery husk forms around the glossy fruit. Pick when the husks turn brown around fragrant, half-inch yellowish orange fruit. Eat only ripe fruits. Mildly tangy and sweet taste is compared to pineapple, strawberry, and grape. Good raw or dried in salads, desserts, jams, chutneys.
Native to South America, it’s in the same genus as tomatillo and family as tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers. Also known as Peruvian ground cherry, cape gooseberry, Inca berry, Aztec berry, and giant ground cherry.
Perennial in the tropics, growing wild at 2,500–10,000' in the Andes and 1,000–8,000' in Hawaii. The plants are frost tender. Can be grown in pots and adapt well to greenhouse culture. Self-fruitful.