Discussion

Chinese Lantern (Physalis alkelengi)

The Physalis genus of plants consists of from 75 to 90 flowering species of perennials. They grow from 1 to 10 feet tall depending on which species it is. One species, this week's painting subject, is Physalis alkelengi, It has many common names, the most common of which is Chinese lantern. Other names are Japanese lantern (the name I use from here on), strawberry ground cherry, winter cherry, and Klabuster cherry. It grows naturally in southern Europe through south Asia to northeast Asia. The Japanese name for the plant is hōzuki.

The "fruit" of Japanese lantern plants are the orange objects, sort of, seen through the foliage. Appearances can be misleading, however. They look similar to persimmons, but that is an illusion.

Japanese lanterns can be grown from seed. They spread aggressively through their roots, however, and can be extremely hard to remove once they have taken over a garden. Some gardeners recommend that they be grown in pots burred in the ground to prevent their spread. The photo below gives a good look at their leaves.

If planted in the spring, Japanese lanterns bloom the same year in the summer. As perennials, blossoms return every year. They have small white flowers, ranging from 1 to 1½ inches in diameter.

Japanese lanterns soon develop fruit, a type of berry. The berry is initially enclosed in a green husk, a form of calyx.

The "fruit" gradually changes color to yellow and then orange by mid fall.

This is what, in the first photo above, appeared similar to persimmons. It is this bright color that makes them popular ornamental plants to gardeners around the world.

The photo below reveals that what appears to be the skin of a large fruit is really a large calyx surrounding the real fruit inside; a type of berry.

This feature of Japanese lantern fruit is shared by all plants in the Physilas genus.

The calyces of Japanese lanterns may stay closed until the berry inside is fully mature. Much of the calyx skin eventually disappears, leaving net-like veins behind. They turn transparent before opening and releasing the berry. What originally appeared to be the fruit was really the skin of a pod.

Each berry contains many tiny seeds, though not as many as depicted below.

Besides using Japanese lantern plants to add color to gardens, seed pods can be cut when they are the desired color, dried, and used in a variety of ways for decorations. They can be left closed and hung like Christmas tree ornaments or opened using the natural seams of the calyx.

Haiku

Artwork

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 1858)

Hiroshige painted many subjects other than the landscape ukiyo-e for which he is famous. The painting of his below features the fruit of Japanese lanterns (hōzuki), but in an unusual way. These have been turned into dolls by folding opened calyx petals down to form the bodies of dolls with the heads being represented by the berries. This is a real practice that has continued to modern times.

Sugakudo Nakayama (fl. 1850 – 1861)

Sugakudo was a student of Hokusai's. Little is known of him other than the years his artwork flourished. In 1859, he published a book titled Ikiutsushi shijûhachi taka (Forty-eight Hawks Drawn from Life). The illustration below is number 33, Kurotsugumi, hôzuki (Dusty Thrush and Ground Cherry). Remember that ground cherry is another name for Japanese lantern.