Thursday, October 04, 2007

chinese lanterns or japanese lanterns

the fruit is also commonly known as cape gooseberry or winter cherry
-- a native of Eastern Europe and Asia
Its botanic name is physalis alkekengi.
Its flowers, white but none in sight...
----
The gardener at the Wintere Garden, New Zealand,
kindly open up the calyx to reveal its fruit.
He said, "Just now I shoo off
a group of Chinese national tourists who
picked the fruits and hurl these in their mouths!"
-----
Its fruit tastes like cherry tomato with an eggy fragrance.
.....
Its white flower (borrowed picture)

3 comments:

Mother of Invention said...

I love the colour! Fall orange just like our pumpkins and squash here now! If we had those, I'd decorate with them!

twilite said...

MOI: Indeed. My friends and I would hang these around for decoration or flower arrangement.

It's really pretty when it's on the plant. Sadly those on the plants...lovely ones didn't turn out as clearly.

Pauline said...

This brought back pleasant memories. My mother would purchase them each fall :)