Gooseberry/ Currant?

I saw a couple of these just a moment ago & want to know if the app my phone is lying to me. I'll keep them around if this is some kind of Gooseberry or Currant, but I wasn't planning on getting any of these due to the issues they are known to cause with pines. I have been able to track down most of the Native trees which ought to be present in a Native pine forest & was planning on starting a small one, but I think it's far enough from these that it shouldn't be a problem.

Looks like a Ribes species to me and the spikey nature suggests its probably a gooseberry rather than a current

Well, this'll be interesting, then.

I wonder how it got there? The Amish farm gooseberries, but the closest group is like 10-15 miles from here & there isn't really an avenue to buy any. I'd be amazed that any were still left in the wild, after the White Pine Blister Rust purge.

D Tucholske wrote:Well, this'll be interesting, then.

I wonder how it got there? The Amish farm gooseberries, but the closest group is like 10-15 miles from here & there isn't really an avenue to buy any. I'd be amazed that any were still left in the wild, after the White Pine Blister Rust purge.

Probably a bird bought it to you. I could always be something in the Ribes family that is not a cultivated 'gooseberry'. Worcesterberries for example are a wild form of gooseberry. Perhaps post a picture when the fruit develops more.

The stem portion looks very long to be gooseberry;  mine form right up next to the spiky branches on very short stems.   But I'm far from a gooseberry expert (I only have two varieties) and I've never grown currants to compare.

I think it's either a gooseberry or a black currant. Red and white currants tend to have more than one flower on a stem, and Ribes aureum has nice yellow flowers. You'll be able to tell if is a black currant (or a cross) by the smell of the leaves when you crush them.

I second the notion that they are more likely a gooseberry due to the little thorn evident in one of the pictures. I grow currants and gooseberries on my farm, and only my gooseberries have little thorns.

D Tucholske wrote: I'd be amazed that any were still left in the wild, after the White Pine Blister Rust purge.

It is possible that the Ribes you have could have a natural immunity to the blister rust, if it was growing when the blister rust came through. Or it appeared after the blister rust and just hasn't been exposed. Slight chance you may something special growing there.

An example of natural immunity I'd like to cite here due to a genetic mutation is the modern Dunstan Chestnut tree. After the blight nearly eradicated the American Chestnut, a man named James Carpenter discovered a single thriving American Chestnut in a grove of dying and already dead trees. This single tree is responsible for the American Chestnut blight resistant hybrids we have today. More here for anyone interested: https://chestnuthilltreefarm.com/learning-center/dunstan-chestnut-history-2/

Well, if it's not a cultivated variety, there's about two or three native species I am aware of that it could be- Swamp, Eastern Prickly or Missouri.

Eastern Prickly Gooseberry (Ribes cynosnbati)

i suspect it’s Eastern Spiny too. it’ll be more obvious as the fruit grows, but it looks like there may be lots of little spines on the fruit itself.

Rust spores can travel hundreds of miles.    

Wasn't it proven that Ribes was not responsible for White Pine Blister Rust, but that the fungus arrived with imported pines?        

I don't really know what, precisely, it ended up coming down to. I think, in terms of law, you're supposed to separate the two plants by a space of, at least, 1/4 mile. There is a white pine as an ornamental in front of an assisted living complex for the elderly immediately adjacent to this patch of woods, though I've heard trimming braches from the trunk up to a certain height makes a rust infection unlikely & the landscapers have already seen to that, so I think it's fine. I can't speak for the rest of the neighborhood, but I was to say the vast majority of the pines in people's yards are foreign species, with only the occasional red or pitch that I've managed to track down. Where I'm placing my pines- and where I've also attempted to start an Eastern Hemlock cutting- is about 1/2 a mile from here, if not slightly more.

Looks like gooseberry to me. If you crush the leaves and smell them, blackcurrant will have a very strong and distinctive blackcurrant smell.  Red currants and gooseberries do not.

That said, there are also various ribes varieties that are either cultivated as ornamentals, or are uncultivated. I would wait to see what grows.

Could it be a josta it is a cross between gooseberry and black currant

Even people who are into gardening for food around here don't usually go for or know of the existence of anything that exotic. They're usually just buying whatever the local hardware or garden stores have out in tomatoes, beans, corn, peppers, onions, apples, peaches, pears, etc & not really even caring about specific variety most of the time. I highly doubt anyone is growing josta around here. They'd have to know what it is in the first place, then special order it & be lucky enough to understand not to try to dig it in to bare clay soil, so it wouldn't die- which the vast majority of the soil around here is.

I am starting to lean more towards people who brought up Eastern Prickly Gooseberry, though. I found a reference that said the plant has an unusual tendency to have larger branches thorn free & smaller branches covered in little thorns. These have that. Unless, there are other kinds of Gooseberry with the same trait. I wouldn't know.

here’s a (admittedly a bit blurry) pic of an eastern spiny gooseberry (and my finger) at my place yesterday.

I live in germany and josta is very common around hwre.. I have had one in my garden (in clay)  for the past 20 years.