Physalis

Physalis spp.

fruit

A small, tart orange berry enclosed in a lantern-shaped papery calyx, from an Andean plant — aguaymanto in Spanish, uchuwa in Quechua. It provides beta-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin.

Origin

Andes (Peru, Colombia)

Season (United States)

imported · all year round

Preparation

Only the fully ripe, golden fruit, without its lantern: green berries and the rest of the plant are toxic.

Molecules

Beta-carotene (vitamin A) · Beta-cryptoxanthinIn small amounts, not counted Vitamin C

Did you know?

It is also called Cape gooseberry: the first settlers of the Cape of Good Hope grew it before 1807.