Ribes pinetorum

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked. It has an agreeable gooseberry taste but is densely covered with spines. Individual fruits are up to 15mm in diameter.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant.

North America, USA,

How to Identify

A deciduous shrub hardy to UK zone 6. Hermaphrodite flowers appear in May. Tolerates light sandy, medium loamy, and heavy clay soils with good drainage, including very acid soils. Grows in mildly acid, neutral, or basic soil. Requires 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. Requires a sunny position. Hardy to about -20c. Plants can harbour a stage of 'white pine blister rust', so they should not be grown in the vicinity of pine trees. Another report says that it grows well in the shade of pine trees. Does this species harbour the rust?. 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 3 months of cold stratification at between 0 and 5°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, 10–15cm with a heel, in July or August 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 November to February in a cold frame or sheltered bed outdoors.

Medicinal Uses

None known

Other Uses

None known

Ribes pinetorum, the orange gooseberry, is a plant species native to Arizona and New Mexico. It grows in coniferous forests at elevations of 1900–3100 m. Ribes pinetorum is a shrub up to 2 m (80 inches) tall, lacking prickles on the stems. Flowers are solitary, orange, tubular, hanging. Fruits are purple, spherical, about 13 mm (0.52 inch) across, with spines but considered by many people to be good-tasting.

Notes

There are about 150 Ribes species.

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No photo

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