Encyclopedia
Description
The
Gooseberry Ribes uva-crispa is a species of
Ribes is a genus [i] of about 150 species of flowering plants [i], usually treated as the only genus ...
, native to
Europe, northwestern
Africa and southwestern
Asia. It is one of several similar species in the subgenus
Grossularia; for the other related species , see the genus page
Ribes is a genus [i] of about 150 species of flowering plants [i], usually treated as the only genus ...
.
Although usually placed as a subgenus within
Ribes, a few taxonomists treat
Grossularia as a separate genus, but since
hybrids between gooseberry and
blackcurrant can be cultivated, this seems inappropriate. The subgenus
Grossularia differs somewhat from currants, chiefly in their spiny stems, and in that their
flowers grow one to three together on short stems, not in
racemes.
Growth Habit
The gooseberry is a straggling
bush growing to 1-3 m tall, the branches being thickly set with sharp spines, standing out singly or in diverging tufts of two or three from the bases of the short spurs or lateral leaf shoots, on which the bell-shaped flowers are produced, singly or in pairs, from the groups of rounded, deeply-crenated 3 or 5 lobed leaves. The fruit is smaller than in the garden kinds, but is often of good flavour; it is generally hairy, but in one variety smooth, constituting the
R. uva-crispa of writers; the colour is usually green, but plants are occasionally met with having deep purple berries.
Range
The gooseberry is indigenous in Europe and western
Asia, growing naturally in
alpine thickets and rocky
woods in the lower country, from
France eastward, perhaps as far as the
Himalaya. In Britain it is often found in copses and
hedgerows and about old ruins, but has been so long a plant of cultivation that it is difficult to decide upon its claim to a place in the native flora of the island. Common as it is now on some of the lower slopes of the
Alps of
Piedmont and
Savoy, it is uncertain whether the
Romans were acquainted with the gooseberry, though it may possibly be alluded to in a vague passage of
Pliny the Elder's
Natural History or "Natural History" is an encyclopedia [i] written by Pliny the Elder [i]. ...
; the hot summers of
Italy, in ancient times as at present, would be unfavourable to its cultivation. Abundant in
Germany and
France, it does not appear to have been much grown there in the
Middle Ages, though the wild fruit was held in some esteem medicinally for the cooling properties of its acid juice in
fevers; while the old
English name,
Fea-berry, still surviving in some provincial dialects, indicates that it was similarly valued in Britain, where it was planted in gardens at a comparatively early period.
William Turner describes the gooseberry in his
Herball, written about the middle of the 16th century, and a few years later it is mentioned in one of Thomas Tusser's quaint rhymes as an ordinary object of garden culture. Improved varieties were probably first raised by the skilful gardeners of
Holland, whose name for the fruit,
Kruisbezie, may have been easily corrupted into the present English vernacular word. Towards the end of the 18th century the gooseberry became a favourite object of cottage-horticulture, especially in
Lancashire, where the working
cotton-spinners have raised numerous varieties from
seed, their efforts having been chiefly directed to increasing the size of the fruit.
Climate
Of the many hundred sorts enumerated in recent horticultural works, few perhaps equal in flavour some of the older denizens of the fruit-garden, such as the
old rough red and
hairy amber. The
climate of the British Islands seems peculiarly adapted to bring the gooseberry to perfection, and it may be grown successfully even in the most northern parts of
Scotland where it is commonly known as a "grozet"; indeed, the flavour of the fruit is said to improve with increasing latitude. In
Norway even, the bush flourishes in gardens on the west coast nearly up to the
Arctic circle, and it is found wild as far north as 63°. The dry summers of the French and German plains are less suited to it, though it is grown in some hilly districts with tolerable success. The gooseberry in the south of England will grow well in cool situations, and may be sometimes seen in gardens near
London flourishing under the partial shade of
apple trees; but in the north it needs full exposure to the sun to bring the fruit to perfection. It will succeed in almost any
soil, but prefers a rich loam or black alluvium, and, though naturally a plant of rather dry places, will do well in moist land, if drained.
Propogation
The varieties are most easily propagated by cuttings planted in the autumn, which root rapidly, and in a few years form good fruit-bearing bushes. Much difference of opinion prevails regarding the mode of pruning this valuable shrub; it is probable that in different situations it may require varying treatment. The fruit being borne on the lateral spurs, and on the shoots of the last year, it is the usual practice to shorten the side branches in the winter, before the buds begin to expand; some reduce the longer leading shoots at the same time, while others prefer to nip off the ends of these in the summer while they are still succulent.
When large fruit is desired, plenty of manure should be supplied to the roots, and the greater portion of the berries picked off while still small. If standards are desired, the gooseberry may be with advantage grafted or budded on stocks of some other species of Ribes,
R. aureum, the ornamental golden currant of the flower garden, answering well for the purpose. The giant gooseberries of the
Lancashire fanciers are obtained by the careful culture of varieties specially raised with this object, the growth being encouraged by abundant manuring, and the removal of all but a very few berries from each plant. Single gooseberries of nearly 2 oz. in weight have been occasionally exhibited; but the produce of such fanciful horticulture is generally insipid.
Pests
The bushes at times suffer much from the ravages of the
caterpillars of the gooseberry or magpie
moth,
Abraxas grossulariala, which often strip the branches of leaves in the early summer, if not destroyed before the mischief is accomplished. The most effectual way of getting rid of this pretty but destructive insect is to look over each bush carefully, and pick off the larvae by hand; when larger they may be shaken off by striking the branches, but by that time the harm is generally done; the eggs are laid on the leaves of the previous season. Equally annoying in some years is the smaller
larva of the V-moth,
Semiothisa wauaria, which often appears in great numbers, and is not so readily removed. The gooseberry is sometimes attacked by the grub of the Gooseberry
sawfly of which several broods appear in the course of the spring and summer, and are very destructive. The grubs bury themselves in the ground to pass into the pupal state; the first brood of flies, hatched just as the bushes are coming into leaf in the spring, lay their eggs on the lower side of the leaves, where the small greenish larvae soon after emerge. For the destruction of the first broods it has been recommended to syringe the bushes with tar-water; perhaps a very weak solution of carbolic acid might prove more effective. The powdered root of white
hellebore is said to destroy both this grub and the caterpillars of the gooseberry moth and V-moth; infusion of
foxglove, and
tobacco-water, are likewise tried by some growers. If the fallen leaves are carefully removed from the ground in the autumn and burnt, and the surface of the soil turned over with the fork or spade, most eggs and chrysalids will be destroyed.
Spraying the plants with potassium sulphide has been found useful in fending off a variety of further parasites and fungi which may attack gooseberries specifically.
Like other
Ribes, the gooseberry serves as an alternate host for
white pine blister rust, which can cause serious damage to white pines. For this reason, there are laws against gooseberry cultivation in some places.
Etymology
The first part of the word has been usually treated as an etymological corruption either of the
Dutch word
Kruisbezie or the allied
German Krausbeere, or of the earlier forms of the
French groseille. Alternatively the word has been connected to the Middle High German
krus , in Latin as
grossularia. However, the
New English Dictionary takes the obvious derivation from
goose and
berry as probable; the grounds on which
plants and
fruits have received names associating them with
animals are so often inexplicable, that the inappropriateness in the meaning does not necessarily give good grounds for believing that the word is an etymological corruption.
Other fruits called gooseberries
As well as the other species in the subgenus
Grossularia, two other unrelated plants are sometimes termed 'gooseberry'.
The fruit called the "Cape gooseberry" is produced by the species
Physalis peruviana in the family
Solanaceae, native to the Andes.
The fruit called the "Chinese gooseberry", now more commonly known as
Kiwifruit, is produced by the species
Actinidia deliciosa, in the family
Actinidiaceae. As its name implies, it was originally cultivated in
China, but was taken to
New Zealand, where
cultivars were selected, and the fruit renamed Kiwifruit. These are now grown in many areas, and marketed worldwide under that name - though the older name is sometimes still seen in
Australia.
The "Indian gooseberry" is produced by the species
Phyllanthus emblica.
References
