The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Canada gooseberry, Canadian gooseberry, northern gooseberry, northern smooth gooseberry, Umatilla gooseberry

Habit Plants 0.3–2 m. Stems erect or spreading, strongly puberulent, pubescence often intermixed with glandular hairs, becoming glabrate; spines at nodes 1–3 (–7), 2.2–13 mm; prickles on internodes absent or sparse to dense.
Leaves

petiole (0.4–)1–4 cm, finely and softly pubescent, sparsely to densely pubescent, or pilose, and glandular-puberulent or glabrous, sometimes abaxially more glandular, or glabrous;

blade roundish to reniform, 3–5(–7)-lobed, cleft 1/2 to midrib, (0.7–)1.5–4 cm, base truncate to cordate, surfaces abaxially pilose to villous, sometimes glabrate or glabrous, stipitate- and sessile-glandular, lobes oblong, oblong-cuneate, or cuneate-rounded, margins irregularly crenate-dentate into prominent, unequal teeth, apex rounded to broadly acute.

Inflorescences

spreading, solitary flowers or 2–3(–4)-flowered racemes, 2–3 cm, axis glabrous or stipitate-glandular and puberulent to pilose, flowers evenly spaced.

Pedicels

not jointed, 1–6 mm, glabrous or villous stipitate-glandular and puberulent to pilose;

bracts broadly ovate-deltate, 1–2 mm (much shorter than leaves), finely glandular-ciliate.

Flowers

hypanthium green or greenish white to white or pinkish, narrowly tubular or campanulate to rotate, 1.4–5.5(–6.6) mm, glabrous abaxially, villous-pubescent adaxially;

sepals not overlapping, spreading to somewhat reflexed, greenish white or greenish yellow, sometimes pinkish or purplish with slightly reddish tinge, broadly to narrowly oblong-ovate or elliptic-obovate, 1–6 mm;

petals connivent, becoming separated, erect, white or pinkish, oblong-oblanceolate or obovate to oblong-obovate, flabelliform-reniform, or obovate-rhombic, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 1–3.5 mm;

nectary disc not prominent;

stamens as long as or only slightly longer than petals;

filaments slightly expanded at base, 0.5–3.5 mm, glabrous;

anthers cream, oblong-oval, 0.6–1.3 mm, apex rounded;

ovary glabrous;

styles connate 1/3–3/4 their lengths, 2.5–8(–9) mm, pilose in proximal 1/2.

Berries

palatable, reddish, greenish purple, or deep purplish black, globose, 7–16 mm, glabrous.

Ribes oxyacanthoides

Distribution
from FNA
AK; ID; MI; MN; MT; ND; NE; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; NF; NT; ON; QC; SK; YT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 5 (5 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Styles 2.5-3.3 mm; hypanthia 1.4-3 mm; sepals 1-3.3 mm.
var. hendersonii
1. Styles 5.5-9 mm; hypanthia 1.5-6.6 mm; sepals 2.5-6 mm
→ 2
2. Sepals finely pilose.
var. cognatum
2. Sepals glabrous or with scattered hairs
→ 3
3. Peduncles 6-15 mm.
var. irriguum
3. Peduncles 2-6 mm
→ 4
4. Leaf blades densely pilose abaxially, base truncate or subcordate; sepal apices rounded.
var. oxyacanthoides
4. Leaf blades finely pubescent abaxially, base deeply cordate; sepal apices truncate.
var. setosum
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 39.
Parent taxa Grossulariaceae > Ribes
Sibling taxa
R. acerifolium, R. amarum, R. americanum, R. aureum, R. binominatum, R. bracteosum, R. californicum, R. canthariforme, R. cereum, R. curvatum, R. cynosbati, R. diacanthum, R. divaricatum, R. echinellum, R. erythrocarpum, R. glandulosum, R. hirtellum, R. hudsonianum, R. indecorum, R. inerme, R. lacustre, R. lasianthum, R. laxiflorum, R. leptanthum, R. lobbii, R. malvaceum, R. marshallii, R. menziesii, R. mescalerium, R. missouriense, R. montigenum, R. nevadaense, R. nigrum, R. niveum, R. pinetorum, R. quercetorum, R. roezlii, R. rotundifolium, R. rubrum, R. sanguineum, R. sericeum, R. speciosum, R. thacherianum, R. triste, R. tularense, R. uva-crispa, R. velutinum, R. viburnifolium, R. victoris, R. viscosissimum, R. watsonianum, R. wolfii
Subordinate taxa
R. oxyacanthoides var. cognatum, R. oxyacanthoides var. hendersonii, R. oxyacanthoides var. irriguum, R. oxyacanthoides var. oxyacanthoides, R. oxyacanthoides var. setosum
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 201. 1753 ,
Web links