ground cherry or gooseberry, Physalis
peruviana, came from South America, while
the ordinary ground cherry, P. pubescens, is
native to both North and South America. Both
fruits resemble miniature, thick-skinned
yellowish tomatoes, are enclosed in papery
husks (thus another name, husk tomato), and
keep well at room temperature. The Peruvian
ground cherry has floral and caramel aroma
notes in addition to generically fruity esters.
These fruits are made into preserves and pies.
Persimmon Persimmons are fruits of trees in
the genus Diospyros, which is native to both
Asia and North America. There’s a plum-
sized native American persimmon, D.
virginiana, and a Mexican species known as
the black sapote (D. digyna), but the most
important persimmon species worldwide is D.
kaki, a tree with applesized fruits native to
China and adopted by Japan; it’s sometimes
said that persimmons are to the Japanese what