Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 8 JuneA Cisneros tomatillo already in flower on 8 June, egg-yolk bells nodding face-down out of the leaf joints so their throats never show, its leaves cut into a few coarse widely spaced teeth, in hard midday sun with black-edged shadows.Week of 15 JuneCisneros tomatillos on 19 June in hard midday sun, two husks already inflated to full lanterns and several more only starting, while at the top of the plant the flowers nod downward as yellow bells rather than the flat stars of a tomato.Week of 22 JuneCisneros tomatillos just after rain on 23 June, seven or eight lanterns hanging under the branches, each husk smooth and inflated and five-sided and ribbed and already filled out by the fruit inside, fat droplets still hanging off every leaf tip.Week of 29 JuneA Cisneros tomatillo on 29 June, its husk smooth and only faintly ribbed and drawn down to a small pointed beak, hanging at eye level with three younger ones above it and one dark pink flower head burning out of focus behind.Week of 13 JulyA Cisneros tomatillo on 16 July still sealed in its husk — dry, papery, buttery cream with a fine vein network showing through where it is translucent, creased into soft folds and drawn to a long point, broader than the pepper beside it.Week of 20 JulyCisneros tomatillos on 23 July, shot from inside the plant: the nearest husk a papery bladder pinched into five lobes and fringed with fine hair along every rib, one face lit through, with two dark-throated yellow bells behind it against cloudless blue.Week of 3 AugustCisneros tomatillos on 5 August, each sealed inside an inflated papery lantern with five dark purple-brown ribs down its length, the tissue between them blistered and translucent enough to show the fruit pale through, seen from below against a streaked sky.Week of 24 AugustA Cisneros tomatillo on 26 August, one husk hanging inflated like a paper lantern from a slender stalk, pale yellow-green and ribbed down its length with darker veins, still wet with rain among broad toothed leaves.Week of 28 SeptemberCisneros tomatillos on 29 September, the lowest husk stretched so taut over its swelling fruit that the pale calyx ribs stand out and the five points pinch to a small beak. Flat overcast light, foliage still damp.
