English: Apple-of-Peru; Shoo-fly plant; Wild gooseberry. tropinone, a tropane alkaloid; hygrine, a pyrrolidine alkaloid
Region: western South America, Peru, Northwest Argentina, Bolivia, North and Central Chile; introduced, sometimes as a weed, in tropical, subtropical, sometimes temperate areas.
Habitat: bare or sparsely grassy places, cultivated ground, waste places, rubbish tips.
Content: nicandrenones, steroidal lactones, known as withanolides, insecticidal; tropinone, a tropane alkaloid; hygrine, a pyrrolidine alkaloid; calystegines, polyhydroxy alkaloids with a nortropane skeleton, pseudotropine.
Use: ornamental; traditional medicine.
Use: edible; toxic; medicinal,
BotanyPlants; 1 metre tall; vigorous.
Stem: spreading branche.
Leaves: ovate, mid-green, toothed and waved.
Flowers: attractive; bell-shaped; 5 cm across; pale violet with white throats; opening only for a few hours in the day; lantern-like towards the end of blooming; sepals cordate.
Action: insect repellent, to whitefly.
fruits: curious; resembling Physalis; deeply lobed
Seeds: relatively thick testa; exhibit strong dormancy, however broken by temperature fluctuation between 15 and 25 °C.