Cape Gooseberry / Physalis

Name: Cape Gooseberry, also called goldenberry, poha berry, or groundcherry (Physalis peruviana). Despite the name, it is unrelated to true gooseberries of the genus Ribes — it is actually a nightshade, in the same genus as the tomatillo.

Description

The Cape gooseberry is native to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, but takes its common English name from South Africa, where it was widely planted from the 19th century onward. Each small orange berry grows enclosed in a papery, inflated husk formed from the plant's fused sepals — the same distinctive packaging seen on its relative the tomatillo — and the fruit itself is bittersweet and juicy, with the tang of a cherry tomato alongside notes of citrus, pineapple, and stone fruit.

The plant is a perennial in its native range but is usually grown as an annual in cooler climates, and it has become invasive in parts of the Pacific, including Hawaii. Its fruit is eaten fresh or cooked into both sweet and savoury dishes worldwide — in jams, chutneys, and sauces, paired with couscous in Hawaii, blended into yogurts and ice creams across the Andes, or dipped whole in chocolate as a petit four in Brazil and parts of Europe.

Main nutrition value

Per 100g, raw cape gooseberries:

Cape gooseberries stand out for vitamin A and niacin, both unusually high for a small fruit, along with a solid dose of vitamin C and iron.

How best to be consumed

Cape gooseberries are best eaten fresh, peeled out of their papery husk once the fruit has ripened to a deep orange — the husk itself is not eaten. They also dry well into a raisin-like snack, and their sweet-tart flavour works equally well folded into fruit salads, baked into desserts, or reduced into savoury sauces and chutneys.

Overconsumption could cause…

As a nightshade related to the tomatillo, the Cape gooseberry should only be eaten once fully ripe and out of its husk; unripe fruit and other parts of the plant contain solanine-type alkaloids that can cause nausea and digestive upset, the same caution that applies to green tomatoes or green potatoes. Ripe fruit eaten in ordinary amounts is otherwise well tolerated, with only the usual risk of mild stomach upset from eating a very large quantity at once.

GroupsBerriesNightshade family (Solanaceae)Low fatFresh

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U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central — Groundcherries, (cape-gooseberries or poha), raw (FDC ID 173043), 100g portion: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/173043/nutrients Encyclopaedia Britannica — Cape gooseberry: https://www.britannica.com/plant/Cape-gooseberry