Ribes

▪ plant genus

      genus of about 150 species of shrubs of two distinct groups, the currants (currant) and the gooseberries (gooseberry), constituting the family Grossulariaceae. They are native to the temperate regions of North America, extending southward into the Andes. Some authorities separate the gooseberries as the genus Grossularia. Currants usually lack spines, while gooseberries are usually prickly. Flowers of currants are generally clustered, those of gooseberries more often solitary. The fruits of both groups are used in cooking and baking.

      Species grown for their edible fruit include the English, or European, gooseberry (R. uva-crispa), American gooseberry (R. hirtellum), black currant (R. nigrum), buffalo currant (R. odoratum), and common, or garden or red, currant (R. rubrum). Species of ornamental value include the alpine currant (R. alpinum); buffalo currant; fuchsia-flowered gooseberry (R. speciosum); golden, or clove, currant (R. aureum), bearing spicy-fragrant yellow flowers; and R. viburnifolium, a sprawling evergreen. Because all Ribes species are alternative hosts of the destructive blister rust fungus, which also attacks white pines, there are local prohibitions to growing Ribes near any white pine plantations.

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