Species
+

Physalis philadelphica Lam.

Domestic Tomatillo, Husk-tomato, Large-flower tomatillo, Large-flowered Tomatillo

Climate known 15 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

The tomatillo, also known as the Mexican husk tomato, is a plant of the nightshade family bearing small, spherical, and green or green-purple fruit. Tomatillos originated in Mexico and were cultivated in the pre-Columbian era. A staple of Mexican cuisine, they are eaten both raw and cooked in a variety of dishes, notably salsa verde. The tomatillo is a perennial plant, but is generally grown for agriculture each year as if it were an annual.

Text from Wikipedia, “Tomatillo”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Physalis

Physalis is a genus of approximately 75 to 90 flowering plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae), which are native to the Americas and Australasia. At least 46 species are endemic to Mexico. Cultivated and weedy species have been introduced worldwide. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Physalis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
Lam.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +10
Wild records
643 in range· 467 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
May, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
871mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jul 188 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–46DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 871 mm a year, wettest July at 188 mm, driest March at 11 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Physalis megistocarpa Zuccagni.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (665 mm of 871 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.8 °C against a yearly mean of 17.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 871 mm a year, wettest July at 188 mm, driest March at 11 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

871 mm a year at the habitat, 665 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 188 mm, driest March at 11 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 482 mm to 1780 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 2.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.5 °C, the absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 30 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 3.0 °C to 14.8 °C), warmest day 27.1 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 21 °C in Jan to 27 °C in May; mean night from 8 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 871 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 536 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost34.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 30–46RH 49–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 536 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C21 / 16–2722 / 18–2825 / 20–3026 / 21–3227 / 22–3225 / 21–3224 / 20–3024 / 20–3023 / 19–2923 / 19–2822 / 18–2821 / 17–27
Night °C8 / 3–159 / 4–1510 / 5–1612 / 7–1814 / 9–2015 / 11–2115 / 10–2115 / 10–2114 / 10–2113 / 9–1910 / 6–179 / 4–16
Rain mm19 / 8–4913 / 7–4511 / 4–4520 / 4–6150 / 11–145150 / 59–311188 / 93–296175 / 85–285152 / 76–32364 / 34–17518 / 9–7111 / 5–50
DLI31 / 25–3437 / 30–3943 / 37–4546 / 40–4945 / 39–5039 / 34–4738 / 34–4338 / 34–4134 / 30–3733 / 29–3532 / 26–3430 / 23–32
RH %53 / 49–6352 / 47–6149 / 44–6050 / 43–6054 / 45–6461 / 52–6863 / 57–6863 / 57–6864 / 58–7061 / 54–6857 / 50–6654 / 49–64

Each figure is the median across the 536 grid cells holding the 634 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1388:1592 (20.575, -100.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 536 distinct grid cells holding the 634 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1388:1592 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 20.50_-100.625, lapse-corrected -145 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1885 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Cuba, Haiti· introduced: Great Britain, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Baltic States, Central European Russia, Ukraine, Morocco, Sudan, Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, KwaZulu-Natal, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia, Leeward Is. AB Ant
Kew's description“annual” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.347, -98.917 · in the densest population, 195 records (30% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 643 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 467 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 183 km away. 867 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 643 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Physalis philadelphicaPhysalis philadelphicaPhysalis philadelphicaPhysalis philadelphicaPhysalis philadelphicaPhysalis philadelphicaPhysalis philadelphicaPhysalis philadelphica

Photographs: Sula Vanderplank, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (4); Heidi Hellstern, CC BY-SA, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Alexander Baransky, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Physalis philadelphica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Rasterelektronenmikroskopische Untersuchungen an Blütenknospen von Physalis philadelphica (Solanaceae) Anwendung einer neuen Präparationsmethode
Pedro Gersterberger, Peter Leins, Peter Leins (1978) · Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft
Isolation and characterization of bioactive principles of the leaves and stems of Physalis philadelphica
Bao-Ning Su, Rosana I. Misico, Eun Jung Park, Bernard D. Santarsiero (2002) · Tetrahedron
Induction of Quinone Reductase by Withanolides Isolated from Physalis philadelphica (Tomatillos)
Edward J. Kennelly, Clarissa Gerhäuser, Lynda L. Song, James G. Graham (1997) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Diversity and genetic structure of the husk tomato (Physalis philadelphica Lam.) in Western Mexico
Pilar Zamora‐Tavares, Ofelia Vargas‐Ponce, José Sánchez‐Martínez, Dánae Cabrera‐Toledo (2014) · Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution
New antiinflammatory sucrose esters in the natural sticky coating of tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica), an important culinary fruit
Chuan‐Rui Zhang, Wajid Khan, Jehan Bakht, Muraleedharan G. Nair (2015) · Food Chemistry
Cancer Chemopreventive Agents Discovered by Activity-Guided Fractionation: An Update
A. Douglas Kinghorn, Bao‐Ning Su, D. Lee, Jian‐Qiao Gu (2003) · Current Organic Chemistry
Induction of the Phase II Enzyme, Quinone Reductase, by Withanolides and Norwithanolides from Solanaceous Species
Bao-Ning Su, Jian-Qiao Gu, Young-Hwa Kang, Eun‐Jung Park (2004) · Mini-Reviews in Organic Chemistry
Ixocarpalactone A isolated from the Mexican tomatillo shows potent antiproliferative and apoptotic activity in colon cancer cells
Juliana K. Choi, Genoveva Murillo, Bao‐Ning Su, John M. Pezzuto (2006) · FEBS Journal
Tomatillo or husk tomato (Physalis philadelphica and Physalis ixocarpa): A review
Julio E. González-Pérez, José Ángel Guerrero-Beltrán (2021) · Scientia Horticulturae

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Physalis 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 12 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 190 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.