Description
N. poeticus var. physaloides
13
[Species 11]
(native to southern France)
A curious, small, late-flowering Poet with strongly reflexed, slender-elliptic perianth segments, which soon appear more obovate as the margins near the base of each segment recurve to create a claw. The conspicuous, but tiny, shallow saucer of a cup is mostly bright, pale greenish sulphur on opening, but this soon retreats towards the dull mid-green eye as a whitish zone develops below the closely denticulate, intense salmon-/coral-pink margin. The inflated sheath enclosing the flower bud is unusual, but not as extreme as the varietal epithet suggests: Physalis is the genus to which the Cape Gooseberry and Chinese Lantern belong.
