Herbs perennial, rhizomatous, rhizomes deeply buried, often also with slender, shallow rhiz­omes, glabrous except for sparse dendroid-stelliform hairs to 1 mm on leaf margins and calyx. Stems erect to decumbent, branching at most nodes, proximal branches spreading and decumbent, 0.5–1.5(–2.5) dm. Leaves sessile; blade linear-lanceolate, sometimes folded along midrib, 2.5–9 × 0.2–0.8(–1) cm, base tapering to stem, margins entire. Pedicels 14–21 mm, 15–35(–42) mm in fruit. Flowers: calyx 6–8 mm, lobes (2–)3–4 mm; corolla yellow with 5 ochre smudges, campanulate-rotate, (8–)11–15 mm; anthers yellow, not twisted after dehis­cence, 2–2.5 mm. Fruiting calyces orange drying brown, loosely enclosing berry, 10-ribbed, (15–)20–30(–40) × 15–25 mm. 2n = 24.

Flowering year-round in areas without frost. Sand, beach dunes, disturbed coastal areas in sand; 0 m; Ala., Fla., La., Miss.

In Florida, plants occur along the panhandle east to Franklin County. Narrow-leaved plants of Physalis × elliottii var. glabra occurring in peninsular Florida are sometimes mistakenly keyed to P. augustifolia (J. R. Sullivan 1985, 2013).