49. Ribes oxyacanthoides Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 201. 1753.
Canadian gooseberry
Plants 0.3-2 m. Stems erect or spreading, strongly puberulent, pubescence often intermixed with glandular hairs, becoming glabrate; spines at nodes 1-3 (-7), 2.2-13 mm; prickles on internodes absent or sparse to dense. Leaves: petiole (0.4-)1-4 cm, finely and softly pubescent, sparsely to densely pubescent, or pilose, and glandular-puberulent or glabrous, sometimes abaxially more glandular, or glabrous; blade roundish to reniform, 3-5(-7)-lobed, cleft 1/2 to midrib, (0.7-)1.5-4 cm, base truncate to cordate, surfaces abaxially pilose to villous, sometimes glabrate or glabrous, stipitate- and sessile-glandular, lobes oblong, oblong-cuneate, or cuneate-rounded, margins irregularly crenate-dentate into prominent, unequal teeth, apex rounded to broadly acute. Inflorescences spreading, solitary flowers or 2-3(-4)-flowered racemes, 2-3 cm, axis glabrous or stipitate-glandular and puberulent to pilose, flowers evenly spaced. Pedicels not jointed, 1-6 mm, glabrous or villous stipitate-glandular and puberulent to pilose; bracts broadly ovate-deltate, 1-2 mm (much shorter than leaves), finely glandular-ciliate. Flowers: hypan-thium green or greenish white to white or pinkish, narrowly tubular or campanulate to rotate, 1.4-5.5 (-6.6) mm, glabrous abaxially, villous-pubescent adaxially; sepals not overlapping, spreading to somewhat reflexed, greenish white or greenish yellow, sometimes pinkish or purplish with slightly reddish tinge, broadly to narrowly oblong-ovate or elliptic-obovate, 1-6 mm; petals connivent, becoming separated, erect, white or pinkish, oblong-oblanceolate or obovate to oblong-obovate, flabelliform-reniform, or obovate-rhombic, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 1-3.5 mm; nectary disc not prominent; stamens as long as or only slightly longer than petals; filaments slightly expanded at base, 0.5-3.5 mm, glabrous; anthers cream, oblong-oval, 0.6-1.3 mm, apex rounded; ovary glabrous; styles connate 1/3-3/4 their lengths, 2.5-8(-9) mm, pilose in proximal 1/2. Berries palatable, reddish, greenish purple, or deep purplish black, globose, 7-16 mm, glabrous.
Varieties 5 (5 in the flora): North America.
