94 GROSSULARIACEAE 



GROSSULARIA (Tournefort) Miller 

 The Gooseberries 



The gooseberries are spreading or upright shrubs that nor- 

 mally are armed at the nodes with simple or 3-forked spines 

 and that bear rounded or kidney-shaped leaves which usually are 

 3 to 5 cleft and crenate or dentate on the margins. The flowers 

 arise in few-flowered racemes from the axils of leaves on short 

 fruiting spurs. The flower pedicels are not jointed. The fruit 

 is a berry with, in most species, a smooth but, in some, a glandu- 

 lar hispid or spiny skin. 



Gooseberries have been widely cultivated, both for their fruit 

 and because of their decorative value. Although gooseberries 

 are distributed throughout the temperate zone, the bulk of the 

 species occur in the United States, and in Illinois the following 

 are to be found. 



Key to the Gooseberry Species 



Calyx lobes shorter than the tube of the flower; the ovary and , 



the berry prickly G. cynosbati, p. 94 



Calyx lobes longer than the tube of the flower ; the ovary and 

 the berry without prickles. 

 Spines at the nodes about l4 to ^ inch long; the anthers of 



the flowers exserted G. missouriensis, p. 95 



Spines at the nodes about ]4 inch long; the anthers not 



exserted G. hirtella, p. 96 



GROSSULARIA CYNOSBATI (Linnaeus) Miller 

 Pasture Gooseberry Dogberry 



The Pasture Gooseberry, fig. 20, is a spreading or, rarely, 

 erect shrub seldom more than 2 feet high, with spines at the 

 nodes and, on younger branches, generally covered more or 

 less densely with long, reddish prickles. The leaves are nearly 

 orbicular in outline but 3-lobed, with the lower lobes some- 

 times more or less lobed also, cordate or truncate at the base, 

 and acute or obtuse at the lobe point. They are 1 to 2 inches 

 wide and about as long, and their margins are crenate-dentate 

 or incised. They stand on slender, generally pubescent petioles 

 yz to lyz inches long. 



There are 1 to 3 green flowers on the peduncled racemes, sup- 

 ported by slender pedicels. These flowers, l4 inch or a little 

 longer, are characterized by oblong calyx lobes which are 



