Wild gooseberry, groseillier hérissé

Ribes hirtellum var. calcicola (Fernald) Fernald; R. hirtellum var. saxosum (Hooker) Fernald; R. oxyacanthoides Linnaeus var. calcicola Fernald; R. oxyacanthoides var. hirtellum (Michaux) Scoggan; R. oxyacanthoides var. saxosum (Hooker) Coville

Plants 0.5-1.5 m. Stems erect to sprawling, glabrous or pubescent, glabrescent; spines at nodes absent or 1-3, 3-8 mm; prickles on internodes absent, sometimes present, scattered. Leaves: petiole 0.7-1.5(-2) cm, pilose; blade roundish to rhombic, 5-7-lobed, cleft nearly 1/2 to midrib, 1-2.5 cm, base broadly cuneate to truncate, surfaces softly pubescent to glabrous, not glandular, lobes cuneate, long-deltate, margins toothed, apex broadly acute. Inflorescences pendent, solitary flowers or 2-3-flowered corymbs, 0.5-1.5 cm, axis glabrous or sparsely pilose. Pedicels not jointed, 2-5 mm, glabrous; bracts ovate to deltate, 1-2 mm, villous-ciliate with simple hairs. Flowers: hypanthium greenish white, obconic to campanulate, 2-3 mm, glabrous or pilose to densely pilose; sepals not overlapping, erect, recurved in age, greenish white or with purplish tinge along margins, broadly oblong, 3-4 mm; petals connivent, erect, white to purple tinged, spatulate-obovate, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 1.7-2.5 mm; nectary disc not prominent; stamens 2 times as long as petals; filaments linear, 3-4.5 mm, glabrous; anthers cream, oval, 0.2-0.3 mm, apex rounded; ovary glabrous; styles connate to middle, 3-4.5 mm, villous in proximal 1/2. Berries palatable, greenish to purplish, globose, 6-7 mm, glabrous. 2n = 16.

Flowering May-Jun. Rocky woods and cliffs, coastal thickets and heathlands, cedar and tamarack swamps, riverbottom forests, swales in sandhills, treed wetlands; 0-2200 m; Alta., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Conn., D.C., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.Dak., Vt., W.Va., Wis.