Ribes cynosbati — Edible Plant Database

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked and has a pleasant sub-acid flavour good for quenching thirst. It makes excellent pies, jellies, and preserves, and can also be dried for later use. This gooseberry measures about 10mm in diameter and is covered with short, weak bristles.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant.

North America, Slovenia, USA,

Countries: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Slovenia, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago, United States, St Vincent

How to Identify

A deciduous shrub growing to 1.5 m tall, hardy to UK zone 2 and frost-hardy. Flowers in April. Hermaphroditic and insect-pollinated. Grows in light, medium, or heavy well-drained soils across mildly acid to mildly alkaline pH. Tolerates semi-shade or full sun and prefers moist soil.

How to Grow

Easily grown in a moisture retentive but well-drained loamy soil of at least moderate quality. Plants are quite tolerant of shade though do not fruit so well in such a position. Hardy to about -20°c. A parent of the cultivated American gooseberry, it is occasionally cultivated in America for its edible fruit. It does not tend to fruit very heavily in Britain. The ssp. R. cynosbati inerme. Rehd. has a fruit that is without bristles. Plants can harbour a stage of white pine blister rust, so should not be grown in the vicinity of pine trees. Plants in this genus are notably susceptible to honey fungus.

Propagation: Seed is best sown as soon as it is ripe in autumn in a cold frame. Stored seed requires 4–5 months of cold stratification at between -2 and +2°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, grow on in a cold frame through their first winter, and plant out in late spring the following year. Take cuttings of half-ripe wood, 10–15cm with a heel, in July or August in a frame. Cuttings of mature wood from the current year's growth, preferably with a heel of the previous year's growth, can be taken November to February in a cold frame or sheltered bed outdoors.

Medicinal Uses

The root or root bark has been used to treat uterine problems caused by having too many children. An infusion of the root can also be applied as a wash for sore eyes.

Other Uses

None known.

Wikipedia

Source ↗

Ribes cynosbati is a North American species of shrub in the family Grossulariaceae (gooseberries and currants). It is native to the eastern and central United States and Canada. It has several common names, including prickly gooseberry, eastern prickly gooseberry, dogberry, and dog bramble. It grows in rich forests, rocky slopes, and open heaths from New Brunswick south along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Alabama and west as far as Manitoba, the Dakotas and Oklahoma.

Notes

There are about 150 Ribes species.

Names & Synonyms

Grossularia cynosbati (L.) Mill.

References (4)

Fisk, J. R. & Hoover, E., 2015, Wild Fruits of Minnesota. A Field Guide. University of Minnesota p 16
http://www.botanic-gardens-ljubljana.com/en/plants
Kermath, B. M., et al, 2014, Food Plants in the Americas: A survey of the domesticated, cultivated and wild plants used for Human food in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. On line draft. p 746
Toupal, R. S. & Hollenback, K., 2009, An Ethnobotany of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore: Plant Uses of the Ojibwa People. Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology. University of Arizona