A consortium led by UC Davis with CGIAR partners and the private sector plans to sequence the genomes of neglected African crops, with the ultimate goal of developing “new varieties [...] that are more nutritious, produce higher yields and are more tolerant of environmental stresses, such as drought”. Genomic information generated through the project will be freely available to scientists around the world. Of the US$ 40 million needed by the project, US$7.5 million have already been raised. A list of 96 species has been developed, which will be narrowed to 24 food crops and tree species whose genomes will be sequenced. Candidate species include amaranth, marula, cocoyam, Ethiopian mustard, ground nut tree, African potato, acacia, baobob, matoke bananas, African medlars, African eggplant and Cape tomato. We were intrigued by the latter name but unable to associate it with a taxon. Could this be the pictured Physalis peruviana, a native of South America, which is now globally distributed with much export-oriented production taking place in South Africa under the trade name of Cape Gooseberry?