Biology of Annual Ground Cherry (Physalis divaricata L.) Weed in lorestan, Iran

Ground cherry (Physalis divaricata L.), a member of the Solanaceae family, is an exotic and important summer season weed of several crops in west of Iran, introduced from India. P. divaricata is a prolific and competitive weed especially in sugar beet, bean crops. This research considers its characteristic in different crop, biology its seed and berry. Result showed that Ground cherry seed became viable between 2 and 3 wk after anthesis and was non dormant when separated from fresh berries. Ground cherry seed was not photoblastic and germinated equally well under both a 14-h photoperiod and continuous darkness. Percentage of unripe seeds germination this weed was 12% before it be cutting but it received to the more than 65% at one week after cutting. Ground cherry easily grew up to 71 cm tall, But grew down to 31 and 15 cm tall in alfalfa and wheat, regularity. These weed seedlings begin to germinate from May to September and continued in wheat farm. Ground cherry seeds were able to germination between 5 w after anthesis with 6.7% and Compared with the 10 w after anthesis, which had 99.3% germination .