No, thats not it. They are called "putka pods". The Chinese lantern has
a papery skin with a fruit inside (like a tomatillo), whereas the putka
pod has a really hard skin that takes a pair of pliers to break. The
inside is divided into 3-4 sections containing the seeds attached to a
thin skin, similar to a pepper. The seeds are rounder than all the
peppers I've handled. Definitely not a physalis.

I suspect that the process of drying the pods kills the seeds. Some of
the advertisements are from oriental sources, so it may be an oriental
plant (just a guess). The skin may not be hard until the pods are dried
for sale. The natural color appears to be a medium to dark brown-grey
(judging from the broken edges of the pod). They may be baked. They may
be treated to avoid pest imports. Since I don't know where they come
from these are just guesses.

Google putka pod. There are several sites listing them for sale, but
none of them has a really good picture of one (I didn't look at all 2400
sites Google came up with).




Cheryl Isaak wrote:

...Do you mean these things?

http://www.hirts.com/cgi-local/catal...1,3,&item=1194


Physalis alkekengi (Chinese Lanterns)

Cheryl