Santa Lucia gooseberry

Grossularia sericea (Eastwood) Coville & Britton

Plants 1-2 m. Stems erect, densely hairy, bristly, bristles often gland-tipped; spines at nodes 3, 6-12 mm; prickles on internodes dense, often gland-tipped. Leaves: petiole 0.5-1.5 cm, pubescent, stipitate-glandular; blade round-ovate, 3-5-lobed, cleft nearly 1/3 to midrib, 1-3.5 cm, base shallowly cordate, surfaces villous, stipitate-glandular, lobes cuneate-rounded, margins with 2-5 rounded teeth, apex rounded. Inflorescences pendent, solitary flowers or 2-3-flowered racemes, 3.5-4.5 cm, axis stipitate-glandular and pilose. Pedicels not jointed, 5-10 mm, pilose, stipitate-glandular; bracts lanceolate, 1-2 mm, pilose, stipitate-glandular. Flowers: hypanthium green, conic to campanulate, 3-4 mm, sericeous; sepals not overlapping, strongly reflexed, greenish red, long-triangular, 6-8 mm; petals connivent, erect, white, oblong-deltate-spatulate, strongly concave abaxially, 4-6 mm; nectary disc not prominent; stamens 2 times as long as petals; filaments linear, 1-1.3 mm, glabrous; anthers cream, oblong, 1.5-1.8 mm, apex blunt or rounded; ovary pubescent, copiously glandular-bristly; styles connate 3/4 their lengths, 15 mm, glabrous. Berries palatability not known, purple, globose, 15-25 mm, glandular-bristly.

Flowering Apr-May. Streamsides; 0-800 m; Calif.

Ribes sericeum is known primarily from the Santa Lucia Mountains; a disjunct population occurs north of Figueroa Mountain in Santa Barbara County.