Alpine gooseberry

Grossularia lasiantha (Greene) Coville & Britton

Plants 0.5-1 m. Stems spreading, puberulent; spines at nodes 1-3, 5-10 mm; prickles on internodes absent. Leaves: petiole 0.3-0.6 cm, pubescent; blade roundish, 3-5-lobed, cleft 1/2 to midrib, 1-2 cm, base broadly truncate to cordate, surfaces glandular-puberulent, lobes somewhat cuneate, blunt, margins few-toothed, apex blunt. Inflorescences erect, 2-4-flowered racemes, 1.5-2 cm, axis villous and pubescent, flowers evenly spaced. Pedicels not jointed, 0.1-0.5 mm, villous; bracts broadly ovate, 1-2 mm, pubescent. Flowers: hypanthium yellowish green, narrowly tubular, 4-5 mm, pubescent; sepals not overlapping, reflexed, becoming erect, yellow, narrowly oblong, 2 mm; petals connate, erect, yellow, obovate-cuneate, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 1-2 mm; nectary disc not prominent; stamens as long as petals; filaments linear, 0.5-1 mm, glabrous; anthers yellow, oval, 0.5-1 mm, apex blunt; ovary glabrous or with sparse hairs; styles completely connate, 6-7 mm, glabrous. Berries palatability not known, red, globose, 6-7 mm, glabrous.

Flowering May-Jul. Open, rocky areas in forests; 1500-3100 m; Calif., Nev.

Ribes lasianthum occurs in the Transverse Ranges and Sierra Nevada of California and western Nevada. The petals and stamens are closely appressed and form a tube.