Ribes uva-crispa

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Ribes uva-crispa
Ribes uva-crispa kz04.jpg
In flower
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Grossulariaceae
Genus: Ribes
Species:
R. uva-crispa
Binomial name
Ribes uva-crispa
L.
Synonyms [1]
List
    • Grossularia glandulososetosaOpiz
    • Grossularia hirsutaMill.
    • Grossularia intermediaOpiz
    • Grossularia pubescensOpiz
    • Grossularia reclinata(L.) Mill.
    • Grossularia spinosa(Lam.) Rupr.
    • Grossularia uvaScop.
    • Grossularia uva-crispa(L.) Mill.
    • Grossularia vulgarisSpach
    • Oxyacanthus sativusChevall.
    • Oxyacanthus uva-crispa(L.) Chevall.
    • Ribes aculeatumSalisb.
    • Ribes caucasicumAdams ex Schult.
    • Ribes crispumDulac
    • Ribes dubiumJacques
    • Ribes grossulariaL.
    • Ribes grossulariumSt.-Lag.
    • Ribes hybridumBesser
    • Ribes reclinatumL.
    • Ribes spinosumLam.

Ribes uva-crispa, known as gooseberry or European gooseberry, [2] is a species of flowering shrub in the currant family, Grossulariaceae. It is native to Europe, the Caucasus and northern Africa. [3] Gooseberry bushes produce an edible fruit and are grown on both a commercial and domestic basis. Its native distribution is unclear, since it may have escaped from cultivation and become naturalized. For example, in Britain, some sources consider it to be a native, [2] others to be an introduction. [4] The species is also occasionally naturalized in scattered locations in North America. [2]

It is one of several species in the subgenus Ribes subg. Grossularia.

Etymology

The goose in gooseberry has been seen as a corruption of either the Dutch word kruisbes or the allied German Krausbeere, [5] or of the earlier forms of the French groseille. Alternatively, the word has been connected to the Middle High German krus ('curl, crisped'), in Latin as grossularia. [6]

Ribes uva-crispa in Thome's Flora von Deutschland, Osterreich und der Schweiz (1885). Note the distinctive curl of the flower petals. Illustration Ribes uva-crispa0.jpg
Ribes uva-crispa in Thomé's Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz (1885). Note the distinctive curl of the flower petals.

However, the Oxford English Dictionary takes the more literal derivation from goose and berry as probable because "the grounds on which plants and fruits have received names associating them with animals are so often inexplicable that the inappropriateness in the meaning does not necessarily give good grounds for believing that the word is an etymological corruption". [6] The French for gooseberry is groseille à maquereau, translated as 'mackerel berries', due to their use in a sauce for mackerel in old French cuisine. [8] In Britain, gooseberries may informally be called goosegogs. [9]

Gooseberry bush was 19th-century slang for pubic hair, and from this comes the saying that babies are "born under a gooseberry bush". [8]

Description

The gooseberry is a straggling bush growing to 1.5 metres (5 feet) in height and width, [10] the branches being thickly set with sharp spines, standing out singly or in diverging tufts of two or three from the bases of the short spurs or lateral leaf shoots. The bell-shaped flowers are produced, singly or in pairs, from the groups of rounded, deeply crenated 3 or 5 lobed leaves.

The fruits are berries, smaller in wild gooseberries than the cultivated varieties, but often of good flavor. The berries are usually green, but there are red, purple, yellow, and white variants. [10]

In cultivation

Gooseberry growing was popular in the 19th century, as described in 1879: [11]

The gooseberry is indigenous to many parts of Europe and western Asia, growing naturally in alpine thickets and rocky woods in the lower country, from France eastward, well into the Himalayas and peninsular India.

In Britain, it is often found in copses and hedgerows and about old ruins, but the gooseberry has been cultivated for so long that it is difficult to distinguish wild bushes from feral ones, or to determine where the gooseberry fits into the native flora of the island. Common as it is now on some of the lower slopes of the Alps of Piedmont and Savoy, it is uncertain whether the Romans were acquainted with the gooseberry, though it may possibly be alluded to in a vague passage of Pliny the Elder's Natural History ; the hot summers of Italy, in ancient times as at present, would be unfavourable to its cultivation. Although gooseberries are now abundant in Germany and France, it does not appear to have been much grown there in the Middle Ages, though the wild fruit was held in some esteem medicinally for the cooling properties of its acid juice in fevers; while the old English name, Fea-berry, still surviving in some provincial dialects, indicates that it was similarly valued in Britain, where it was planted in gardens at a comparatively early period.

William Turner describes the gooseberry in his Herball, written about the middle of the 16th century, and a few years later it is mentioned in one of Thomas Tusser's quaint rhymes as an ordinary object of garden culture. Improved varieties were probably first raised by the skilful gardeners of Holland, whose name for the fruit, Kruisbezie, may have been corrupted into the present English vernacular word. Towards the end of the 18th century the gooseberry became a favourite object of cottage-horticulture, especially in Lancashire, where the working cotton-spinners raised numerous varieties from seed, their efforts having been chiefly directed to increasing the size of the fruit. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gooseberry</span> Species of Ribes cultivated for its edible fruit

Gooseberry is a common name for many species of Ribes, as well as a large number of plants of similar appearance. The berries of those in the genus Ribes are edible and may be green, orange, red, purple, yellow, white, or black.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackcurrant</span> Species of flowering plant in the gooseberry family Grossulariaceae

The blackcurrant, also known as black currant or cassis, is a deciduous shrub in the family Grossulariaceae grown for its edible berries. It is native to temperate parts of central and northern Europe and northern Asia, where it prefers damp fertile soils. It is widely cultivated both commercially and domestically.

<i>Ribes</i> Genus of flowering plants in the order Saxifragales

Ribes is a genus of about 200 known species of flowering plants, most of them native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The various species are known as currants or gooseberries, and some are cultivated for their edible fruit or as ornamental plants. Ribes is the only genus in the family Grossulariaceae.

<i>Ribes triste</i> Berry and plant

Ribes triste, known as the northern redcurrant, swamp redcurrant, or wild redcurrant, is an Asian and North American shrub in the gooseberry family. It is widespread across Canada and the northern United States, as well as in eastern Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redcurrant</span> Species of flowering plant in the gooseberry family Grossulariaceae

The redcurrant or red currant is a member of the genus Ribes in the gooseberry family. It is native to western Europe. The species is widely cultivated and has escaped into the wild in many regions.

<i>Arctostaphylos uva-ursi</i> Species of fruit and plant

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is a plant species of the genus Arctostaphylos widely distributed across circumboreal regions of the subarctic Northern Hemisphere. Kinnikinnick is a common name in Canada and the United States. Growing up to 30 centimetres in height, the leaves are evergreen. The flowers are white to pink and the fruit is a red berry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jostaberry</span> Berry and plant

The jostaberry is a complex-cross fruit bush in the genus Ribes, involving three original species, the blackcurrant R. nigrum, the North American coastal black gooseberry R. divaricatum, and the European gooseberry R. uva-crispa. It is similar to Ribes × culverwellii, the jochelbeere, which is descended from just two of these species, R. nigrum and R. uva-crispa.

Gooseberry most often refers to a cultivated plant from two species of the genus Ribes:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White currant</span> Cultivars of Ribes rubrum, a species of flowering plant in the gooseberry family Grossulariaceae

The white currant or whitecurrant is a group of cultivars of the red currant, a species of flowering plant in the family Grossulariaceae, native to Europe.

<i>Ribes divaricatum</i> Species of currant

Ribes divaricatum is a species in the genus Ribes found in the forests, woodlands, and coastal scrub of western North America from British Columbia to California. The three accepted varieties have various common names which include the word "gooseberry". Other common names include coast black gooseberry, wild gooseberry, Worcesterberry, or spreading-branched gooseberry.

<i>Ribes speciosum</i> Species of flowering plant

Ribes speciosum is a species of flowering plant in the family Grossulariaceae, which includes the edible currants and gooseberries. It is a spiny deciduous shrub with spring-flowering, elongate red flowers that resemble fuchsias, though it is not closely related. Its common name is fuchsia-flowered gooseberry. It is native to central and southern California and Baja California, where it grows in the scrub and chaparral of the coastal mountain ranges.

Ribes amarum is a species of currant known by the common name bitter gooseberry. It is endemic to California, where it is known from mountains, foothills, and canyons. Its habitat includes Chaparral.

<i>Ribes californicum</i> Species of flowering plant

Ribes californicum, with the common name hillside gooseberry, is a North American species of currant. It is endemic to California, where it can be found throughout many of the California Coast, Transverse, and Peninsular Ranges in local habitat types such as chaparral and woodlands.

<i>Ribes inerme</i> Species of flowering plant

Ribes inerme is a species of currant known by the common names whitestem gooseberry and white stemmed gooseberry. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California and eastward to the Rocky Mountains. It grows in mountain forests, woodlands, and meadows.

Ribes lasianthum is a species of currant known by the common names alpine gooseberry and woolly-flowered gooseberry. It is native to California, where it can be found in the San Gabriel Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, its distribution extending just into Nevada.

<i>Ribes montigenum</i> Berry and plant

Ribes montigenum is a species of currant known by the common names mountain gooseberry, alpine prickly currant, western prickly gooseberry, and gooseberry currant. It is native to western North America from Washington south to California and east as far as the Rocky Mountains, where it grows in high mountain habitat types in subalpine and alpine climates, such as forests and talus. It is a spreading shrub growing up to 1.5 meters tall, the branching stems covered in prickles and hairs and bearing 1 to 5 sharp spines at intervals.

<i>Ribes roezlii</i> Species of flowering plant

Ribes roezlii is a North American species of gooseberry known by the common name Sierra gooseberry.

<i>Ribes hirtellum</i> Species of flowering plant

Ribes hirtellum is a species of gooseberry commonly known as wild gooseberry or swamp gooseberry. It is native to Canada and the northern United States. Cultivated gooseberries are derived from this species and from Ribes uva-crispa.

<i>Ribes aciculare</i> Species of flowering plant

Ribes aciculare is a species of flowering plant in the currant/gooseberry family Grossulariacea, generally regarded as closely related to Ribes burejense. It is native to central and northern Asia, and has been reported as native to Altay, Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk, Mongolia, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang. Its habitats vary from stony hill and mountain slopes to forest margins and thickets. In Northern China it has been found at altitudes of 1,500-2,100 metres. The plant is very cold hardy, and can tolerate temperatures down to -20°C during dormancy.

References

  1. ↑ "The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species" . Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Morin, Nancy R. (2009). "Ribes uva-crispa". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 8. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 28 August 2020– via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  3. ↑ Doronina, A.Ju. & Terekhina, N.V. (2003–2009). "Ribes uva-crispa L. – European gooseberry". AgroAtlas – Interactive Agricultural Ecological Atlas of Russia and Neighboring Countries. Retrieved 2017-12-03.
  4. ↑ Stace, Clive (2010). New Flora of the British Isles (3rd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p.  126. ISBN   978-0-521-70772-5.
  5. ↑ Wedgwood, Hensleigh (1855). "On False Etymologies". Transactions of the Philological Society (6): 69.
  6. 1 2 "Gooseberry". Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper. 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  7. ↑ Thomé, Otto Wilhelm (1885). Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz[Flora of German, Austria and Switzerland] (in German).
  8. 1 2 Oldfield, Molly; Mitchinson, John (23 March 2009). "QI: Quite Interesting facts about costermongers". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on February 27, 2009.
  9. ↑ "Goosegog". Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press. 2018. Archived from the original on May 22, 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  10. 1 2 Harry Baker (1999). Growing Fruit. Octopus Publishing Group. p. 70. ISBN   9781840001532.
  11. 1 2 Baynes, T. S., ed. (1879). "Gooseberry". The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature. Vol. 10. C. Scribner's sons. p. 779.
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