43.
Ribes missouriense
Nuttall in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 548. 1840.
Wild gooseberry, groseillier de Missouri
Grossularia missouriensis
(Nuttall) Coville & Britton;
Ribes missouriense
var.
ozarkanum
Fassett
Plants
1.3-2 m.
Stems
erect to sprawling, glabrous or puberulent; spines at nodes sometimes absent or 1-3, 7-18 mm; prickles on internodes absent or scattered.
Leaves:
petiole 0.7-2 cm, hairy, with longer and often plumose hairs and elongated glands near base, short-stipitate glands absent; blade roundish, 3-lobed, cleft nearly to midrib, 1.7-3 cm, base broadly cuneate to rounded or subcordate, sometimes truncate, surfaces not glandular, villous-tomentose abaxially, puberulent to hirsute, glabrescent adaxially, lobes straight-sided to sometimes cuneate, margins toothed, apex rounded.
Inflorescences
pendent, solitary flowers or 2-4-flowered corymbs, 3-5 cm, axis glabrous or sparsely lanate to pilose and puberulent, sparingly stipitate-glandular, flowers evenly spaced.
Pedicels
not jointed, 5-13 mm, glabrous; bracts broadly ovate, 2-2.5 mm, ciliate.
Flowers:
hypanthium greenish white, narrowly tubular, 1.5-2.5 mm, glabrous; sepals not overlapping, spreading to reflexed, pale green to white, linear-oblong, 5-7 mm; petals connivent, erect, pale green to nearly white, becoming pink tinged, cuneate-obovate, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 2-3.5 mm; nectary disc not prominent; stamens 3-5 times as long as petals; filaments linear, 15 mm, glabrous; anthers cream to pale pink, oblong-sagittate, 2 mm, apex rounded; ovary glabrous; styles connate nearly 7/8 their lengths, 10-14 mm, glabrous.
Berries
palatable, red to purple, globose, 7-12 mm, glabrous.
2
n
= 16.
Flowering Apr-Jun. Upland woods, thickets, prairie ravines, pastures; 0-600 m; Ont.; Ark., Conn., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Md., Minn., Mo., Nebr., N.J., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.Dak., Tenn., Va., W.Va., Wis.
In
Ribes missouriense
and some other species (e.g.,
R. americanum, R. cynosbati, R. oxyacanthoides
), the filaments are attached in a "pocket" of the anthers; the anthers have a sagittate appearance although the bases do not spread away from the main axis (A. F. Cholewa, pers. comm.).
In the Midwest,
Ribes missouriense
often is an indicator of woodlands that have experienced grazing pressure (G. Yatskievych, pers. comm.). The eastern North American populations in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia are probably escapes from cultivation.
