A genus of about 150 species in the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, extending southward in the New World to Chile and Argentina. They are deciduous, more rarely evergreen, shrubs with alternate, mostly three- or five-lobed leaves. Inflorescence racemose, sometimes reduced to a few-flowered cluster. The most conspicuous feature of the flower is the receptacle (‘calyx-tube’), which varies in shape from tubular to widely cup-shaped or campanulate, its lower part adnate to the ovary; sepals normally five. Petals shorter than the sepals and usually inconspicuous. Stamens four or five. Styles two, more or less united. Fruit a berry, crowned by the persistent sepals.
The great majority of the species fall into two well-marked groups:
Currants
Stems without spines at the nodes (except in R. diacanthum and some related species not treated here). Flower-stalks jointed. Inflorescence usually a raceme with more than five flowers (but see R. fasciculatum). In what might be termed the ‘true’ currants the flowers are perfect (subgen. Ribes, formerly Ribesia), but there is a group of species, constituting the subgenus Berisia, which are dioecious. To the latter belong R. alpinum and its allies, R. orientale, R. tenue, R. maximowiczii, R. laurifolium, R. henryi, R. fasciculatum and R. gayanum. In the two last-named species the flowers appear to be perfect, but the pollen in the female flowers and the ovules in the male flowers are sterile.
Gooseberries
Stems with spines at the joints. Flower-stalks not jointed. Inflorescence a racemose cluster with not more than four flowers, which are perfect. This is the subgenus Grossularia, by some authorities treated as a separate genus.
There is a small group of species – subgen. Grossularioides – which is intermediate between the currants and the gooseberries. They are armed like the latter, but the flower-stalks are articulated and the inflorescence is a many-flowered raceme, as in the currants. See R. lacustre.
The ribes present no difficulty in cultivation; they like a loamy soil of at least average quality, and the West N. American gooseberries need as sunny a spot as possible. They are propagated by seed or by cuttings. The latter will frequently form roots when made of leafless shoots in November and placed in the open air – as common gooseberries are – but they are more certain if placed under a handlight. A second method, better adapted to the currants, is to make cuttings of leafy shoots in July and August and place them in gentle bottom-heat, but most of them will strike root also in the open ground, of course much more slowly.