Physalis Improvement Project: Citizen Science 2020 + USGS Native Bee Lab

by | Jan 8, 2020 | Physalis Project

Citizen Science 2020: Join Now!

 

  • Grow plants that produce edible fruit in your home garden
  • Submit photos to help us track pests and pollinators
  • Follow along with our blog and follow us on twitter @PhysalisProject
  • Growing instructions provided

Available to anyone interested in growing plants in the United States

We will provide you with the seeds of up to four species of Physalis, you do not need to grow all four species to participate:

Colombia (Physalis peruviana) (Goldenberry)
PHY 50 (Physalis pruinosa) (Groundcherry)
Pineapple (Physalis grisea) (Groundcherry)
Toma Verde (Physalis ixocarpa) (Tomatillo)

Request Seeds by February 1st to ensure shipment in time

Click here to sign up!

USGS Native Bee Lab

The USGS Native Bee Lab in Logan, Utah works to survey bee populations at a national scale. Their website has a wealth of information about native bee biology and species distributions across the country. They also curate resources for those interested to learn more about bee identification and monitoring.

Recently, The USGS Native Bee Lab had an Instagram post featuring Physalis , highlighting the specialist nature of some of the Physalis pollinators. Some species of bees, such as Colletes latitarsis depend on the Physalis genus as they only feed their babies pollen from this genus.

Check out the post below!

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

You know, as a society, we have thought a great deal about plants, but mostly on the food and prettiness spectrums not so much on the ecological slider. So, here you have a Physalis seed husk, on the food end of the spectrum the genus gets about a 3.5 because tomatillos are in here, and a couple of other edibles, but its not one of the food powerhouses. I give it an 8 on prettiness as I have liked the husk form since I grew Chinese Lanterns as a kid (I was a weird kid...). Otherwise it is a weed for most and our native members are mostly ignored. Yet, some of our bee friends depend on this plant (Colletes latitarsis is one) and only feed their babies the pollen from this group. Look more closely and there are bunches of other bugs (and doubtless fungi and single celled things) that orbit this plant's life. So much we don't know, but yet, we can soften the impacts of our yards by simply letting the native plants (and friends) stay and reducing the plants that do not provide food and shelter to the other beings in our region. Specimen collected and photographed on Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge #groundcherry #green #husk #tomatillo #physalis #glowinggreen #greenglow #garden #caldwell #greenplant #plants #ball #paperlantern

A post shared by Bee Inventory Monitoring Lab (@usgsbiml) on