Ribes curvatum Small

Drooping Gooseberry; Granite Gooseberry

Shrub

Perennial

Vascular

Granite Gooseberry is a native shrub in the Gooseberry family (Grossulariaceae). It is native to the northeast portion of Alabama. Granite Gooseberry grows on dry rocky slopes and in rich woods. It is a small to medium sized deciduous shrub reaching 9 feet in height, though it is most often between 3-5 feet in height. The stems are erect to recurving and often root at the tips. There are 3 reddish brown spines at each node. The leaves are alternate, petiolate, and have three rounded lobes. The leaves are pubescent and glandular, bright shiny green in color, with toothed margins. Flowers are solitary or in 2-4 flowered racemes. The flowers are white in color. The hypanthium (the fused basal portions of the calyx, the corolla, and the stamens forming a cup-shaped tube) in bell shaped with scattered hairs. The sepals are separate, white, and spreading. The petals are white and connivent (in close contact but not fused). Flowers have a strong fragrance of cloves. The fruit is a green to purple berry with numerous seed. The fruit is sometimes used in preserves and is consumed by birds and small mammals. Granite Gooseberry is listed as a S2 species in Alabama (typically 6 to 20 occurrences, few remaining individuals, acres, or miles of stream, or factors demonstrably making it very vulnerable in the state). Globally it is listed as a G4 species (imperiled globally because of rarity (6 - 20 occurrences, or few remaining acres, or miles of stream) or very vulnerable to extinction throughout its range because of other factors).--A. Diamond

**

Native S2 (State Rank) G4 (Global Rank)

**