European Gooseberry



European Gooseberry
Ribes uva-crispa

European Gooseberry is just the garden variety of gooseberry that sometimes persists and flourishes in the wild.  It's native to Britain and Europe and was very popular over there, so when they started coming over here, they brought this with them.

I haven't seen too much of it in any nature preserve, just around old homesites.  The plant has a different look to it than the native gooseberries, although it's hard to describe.  It grows in big patches in the places I've seen it, unlike the native, which seems to grow more singly.

This is a great plant to have in the garden. You can get varieties that don't have so many thorns, and have large berries which makes picking and getting a bunch of fruit a lot easier.  It makes great desserts!



Note that the leaf does not have a heart-shaped base



The thorns can be a bit nasty when picking the fruits