Lobulobuan (Cape gooseberry)
Scientific names:  Physalis peruviana L.
Physalis edulis Sims
 
The gooseberry has many colloquial names in Latin America: capuli, aguaymanto, tomate sylvestre, or uchuba, in Peru; capuli or motojobobo embolsado in Bolivia; uvilla in Ecuador; uvilla, uchuva, vejigón or guchavo in Colombia; topotopo, or chuchuva in Venezuela; capuli, amor en bolsa, or bolsa de amor, in Chile; cereza del Peru in Mexico. It is called cape gooseberry, golden berry, pompelmoes or apelliefie in South Africa; alkekengi or coqueret in Gabon; lobolobohan in the Philippines; 
teparee, tiparee, makowi, etc., in India; cape gooseberry or poha in Hawaii.  This herbaceous or soft-wooded, perennial plant usually reaches 2 to 3 ft (1.6-0.9 m) in height but occasionally may attain 6 ft (1.8) m. It has ribbed, often purplish, spreading branches, and nearly opposite, velvety, heart-shaped, pointed,  randomly-toothed
leaves 2 3/8 to 6 in (6-15 cm) long and 1 1/2 to 4 in (4-10 cm) wide, and, in the leaf axils, bell-shaped, nodding flowers to 3/4 in (2 cm) wide, yellow with 5 dark purple-brown spots in the throat, and cupped by a purplish-green, hairy, 5-pointed calyx.
After the flower falls, the calyx expands, ultimately forming a straw-colored husk much larger than the fruit it encloses. The berry is globose, 1/2 to 3/4 in (1.25-2 cm) wide, with smooth, glossy, orange-yellow skin and juicy pulp containing numerous very small yellowish seeds. When fully ripe, the fruit is sweet but with a pleasing grape-like tang. The husk is bitter and inedible.
Reportedly native to Peru and Chile, where the fruits are casually eaten and occasionally sold in markets but the plant is still not an important crop, it has been widely introduced into cultivation in other tropical, subtropical and even temperate areas. It is said to succeed wherever tomatoes can be grown. The plant was grown by early settlers at the Cape of Good Hope before 1807. In South Africa it is commercially cultivated and common as an escape and the jam and canned whole fruits are staple commodities, often exported. It is cultivated and naturalized on a small scale in Gabon and other parts of Central Africa.  In China, India and Malaya, the cape gooseberry is commonly grown but on a lesser scale. In India, it is often interplanted with vegetables. It is naturalized on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Seeds were taken to Hawaii before 1825 and the plant is naturalized on all the islands at medium and somewhat higher elevations. It was at one time extensively cultivated in Hawaii. By 1966, commercial culture had nearly disappeared and processors had to buy the fruit from backyard growers at high prices.

The plant is widely grown from seed. There are 5,000 to 8,000 seeds to the ounce (28 g) and, since germination rate is low,
this amount is needed to raise enough plants for an acre–2 1/2 oz (70 g) for a hectare. In India, the seeds are mixed with wood
ash or pulverized soil for uniform sowing.  Sometimes propagation is done by means of 1-year-old stem cuttings treated with hormones to promote rooting, and 37.7% success has been achieved. The plants thus grown flower early and yield well but are less vigorous than seedlings. Air-layering is also successful but not often practiced.
 
 
 
 
 

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