Native Plants

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Wednesday - July 20, 2011

From: Alleyton, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Propagation, Herbs/Forbs
Title: Propagation of quincula lobata from Alleyton TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Quincula lobata..how to propagate and when?

ANSWER:

As you can see from this USDA Plant Profile Map, Quincula lobata (Purple groundcherry) is more of a West Texas Plant. However, we see no reason why it wouldn't grow where you are. It is apparently used to living on a low-nutrient, rocky soil, so don't love it too much with fertilizers and rich soil. Sometimes, our webpage on each plant (which you can read by following the link above) will have Propagation Instructions, but this time it didn't. So, we went hunting on the Internet and found this article from eHow Chinese Lantern Plant Tips. Although we found no mention of it, we wouldn't be surprised if you could dig up a portion of the underground rhizones and propagate it with that, but the berries inside the "Chinese Lanterns" are the seeds.

From the Image Gallery

Purple groundcherry
Quincula lobata