Ribes quercetorum

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked and is palatable. The black, globose berries are 7–8mm in diameter. They are generally pleasantly sweet with minimal foul or resinous notes, and the skin is dark red, shiny, hairless, and spineless. The main drawback is that each berry is packed with numerous seeds, though the seeds are soft and easily chewed. This makes the fruit less juicy than other currants but still agreeable. As its name suggests, the plant thrives in low-elevation desert habitats and tends to fruit early in the year. Flowers appear from January to May, and by midsummer most berries are already gone, leaving the shrub nearly leafless until summer rains prompt some regrowth. Despite the spiny stems, harvesting is fairly straightforward, and Native Americans valued the berries as a reliable seasonal food.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant.

Mexico, North Africa, USA,

How to Identify

A deciduous shrub growing to 1 m tall and wide at a fast rate, hardy to UK zone 8 and frost-hardy. Insect-pollinated and noted for attracting wildlife. Tolerates light sandy, medium loamy, and heavy clay soils with good drainage. Grows in semi-shade to full sun and prefers consistently moist soil. Suitable for mildly acidic to mildly alkaline conditions.

How to Grow

Species in this genus are generally easy to grow, preferring a position in the sun (where they fruit best) or moderate shade and succeeding in most moist but well-drained soils of at least moderate fertility. The pale yellow flowers are fagrant. White pine blister rust, caused by the pathogen Cronartium ribicola, is a fungal disease that is native to Asia but has spread via human activity to many other regions, where it has become more virulent. It has a complex life cycle requiring currants (Ribes species) and white pines (Pinus species of the section Strobus) for the disease to spread. While Ribes species can generally live with the disease (it has an annual life cycle and infects the leaves only), Pinus species can be devastated by it (it becomes perennial and spreads through the tree). Young pines are far more susceptible than mature trees. In America, the growing of certain Ribe species is banned in some areas to protect plantations of white pine species. Plants in this genus tend to be notably susceptible to honey fungus. USDA Hardiness & Weed Potential: Desert gooseberry grows in southern Arizona and California, typically in arid habitats, and is adapted to USDA Hardiness Zones 7–9. It is a native desert shrub and is not considered weedy or invasive.

Propagation: Seed is best sown as soon as it is ripe in autumn in a cold frame. Stored seed requires 3 months of cold stratification at 0–9°c and should be sown as early in the year as possible. Under normal storage conditions seed can remain viable for 17 years or more. Prick out seedlings into individual pots when large enough to handle and grow on in a cold frame for their first winter, planting out in late spring the following year. Take cuttings of half-ripe wood in midsummer in a frame. Cuttings of mature wood of the current year's growth, preferably with a heel of the previous year's growth, can be taken from late autumn to late winter in a cold frame or sheltered bed outdoors.

Medicinal Uses

None known

Other Uses

None known

Ribes quercetorum is a species of currant known by the common names rock gooseberry, oak gooseberry and oakwoods gooseberry. It is native to the mountains and hills of California from the San Francisco Bay Area south into Baja California and east into Arizona. Ribes quercetorum grows in woodlands, chaparral, and dry desert slopes and canyons. It is a spreading shrub producing arching stems up to 1.5 meters (5 feet) long, the nodes along the stems bearing 1 to 3 spines each up to 1.5 centimeters (0.6 inch) long. The lightly hairy, glandular leaves are up to 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) long and are divided into a few lobes which are toothed or lobed at their tips. The inflorescence is a raceme of 2 or 3 small flowers. Each flower has five reflexed yellow sepals around a tube-shaped ring of smaller cream-colored petals. The fruit is a spherical, edible black berry just under a centimeter (0.4 inch) in diameter.

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