Physalis of Central and South America

The Missouri Botanical Garden provides a checklist of Physalis known from Panama as part of their legacy Panama Checklist: http://legacy.tropicos.org/Name/40008002?projectid=4

Based on checklists from the Missouri Botanical Garden and Kew's Plants of the World Online, and cross-checked against modern nomenclatural sources, 8 species of Physalis are known from Panama, all of which are either cultivated or widespread weeds. Physalis peruviana was not included on either list, but is cultivated there and appears in several iNaturalist observations.

Updated Species List for Panama: (9 species)

Physalis angulata L.: Widespread in the Americas, weedy in warm areas worldwide.
Physalis cordata Houst. ex Mill.: Widespread in warm parts of the Americas.
Physalis gracilis Miers: Mexico to parts of South America.
Physalis ignota Britton: Mexico, Central America, parts of South America, and weedy in some other warm areas.
Physalis lagascae Roem. & Schult.: Mainly Mexico to parts of South America.
Physalis minuta Griggs: Mexico through Central America.
Physalis peruviana L.: Native to South America, widely cultivated, sometimes invasive elsewhere.
Physalis philadelphica Lam.: Mexico through Central America and widespread as an escape from cultivation.
Physalis pubescens L.: Widespread in the Americas and a weed of various tropical areas.

NOTE: Both Kew & Missouri listed P. hirsuta as being found in Panama, but there is nomenclatural conflict over the name, which was apparently used twice by different authors for different species. While both Kew and Missouri still seem to recognize different versions of the name, the species (under either interpretation) is meant to occur in Mexico, but Martinez et al. (2023) in their revision of Mexican Physalis don't mention it at all, which means they're considering a synonym of something. Overall, it looks like both versions of the name get lumped into P. pubescens by various authors (Kew says Physalis hirsuta Dunal, which Missouri recognizes as distinct, is a synonym of P. pubescens. Pretz & Deanna (2020) say Physalis hirsuta M.Martens & Galeotti, which Kew recognizes as distinct, is a synonym of P. pubescens.) Based on this, I'm considering P. hirsuta of any flavor as a synonym of P. pubescens.

Since all species of Physalis known from Panama also occur in Mexico, see Martinez et al. (2023) below if you need a key for a Panamanian specimen.

REFERENCES:

Martínez, Mahinda, Ofelia Vargas-Ponce, and Pilar Zamora-Tavares. "Taxonomic revision of Physalis in Mexico." Frontiers in genetics 14 (2023): 1080176.

Pretz, Chelsea, and Rocío Deanna. "Typifications and nomenclatural notes in Physalis (Solanaceae) from the United States." Taxon 69.1 (2020): 170-192. less ↑