''Ribes lobbii'' (known commonly by the names gummy gooseberry, fuchsia-flowered gooseberry or pioneer gooseberry) is a shrubby, deciduous, shade-intolerant

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

dicot The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, t ...

found on the western coast of North America. It was first described in 1876 by

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His '' Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually ex ...

.''Amer. Naturalist'' x. (1876) 274. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

was a dedication to the English

plant collector Plant collecting is the acquisition of plant specimens for the purposes of research, cultivation, or as a hobby. Plant specimens may be kept alive, but are more commonly dried and pressed to preserve the quality of the specimen. Plant collecting i ...

William Lobb William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...

Description

''Ribes lobbii'' is a deciduous, loosely branched shrub, about half a meter to one meter (20–40 inches) in height. Its stems are spreading, finely hairy, generally having three slender nodal spines, 7–12 mm long. It has bark that starts out brown, changing to a deep greyish-red later.

Leaves

The leaves of ''R. lobbii'' are borne on smooth stalks. Each leaf is 1.3–2.6 cm long, 1.5–2.5 cm wide, alternate, ovate, shallowly heart-shaped at the base, shallowly cleft and deeply toothed, with 3–5 rounded lobes. The upper surface is tacky and glabrous (or very sparsely haired); the lower surface is somewhat tomentous and glandular.

Flowers

''Ribes lobbii'' develops its flowers in early summer. They are arranged as inflorescences of one or two flowers in a nodding raceme on stalks that are shorter than the leaves. Each flower's stalk is 1.5–2 mm in length, densely bristled and glandular. The white or light-pink petals are 4–6 mm long, broad and fanlike, and curl back away from the flower-face, and towards the flower stem. The flower's hypanthium is typically 3.5–5.5 mm long, and shaped like a narrow bell. The anthers extend well beyond petals. The calyces are red and hairy, with 10–13 mm long lobes that are oblong and narrow, coming to a point. The styles are smooth, fusing to just below or just above the middle, about running equal to the stamens.

Fruits

The fruits of ''R. lobbii'' are 12–15 mm long, round to elliptic

berries A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, rasp ...

. They are reddish-brown, roughly bristled, glandular and edible.

Habitat

''R. lobbii'' prefers mesic to dry streambanks, rock outcrops, open woodlands and forests in the lowland and montane zones. It is more frequent in the drier, Pacific portion of its range where it is often a characteristic plant, rather than in the wetter Cordilleran, where it can be locally rare. It thrives in the maritime to submaritime, cool mesothermal climates on very dry to moderately dry, soils of moderate nitrogen content. It is sporadic or scattered in early-seral communities and open-canopy Douglas-fir forests on watersheds.

Range and distribution

Gummy gooseberries are distributed sporadically throughout the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

region of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

(

Siskiyou Mountains The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal subrange of the Klamath Mountains, and located in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately from east of Crescent City, California, northea ...

, eastern

Columbia Gorge The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Up to deep, the canyon stretches for over as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range, forming the boundary between the stat ...

Crater Lake National Park Crater Lake National Park is an American national park located in southern Oregon. Established in 1902, Crater Lake is the fifth-oldest national park in the United States and the only national park in Oregon. The park encompasses the caldera of ...

Mount Rainier National Park Mount Rainier National Park is an American national park located in southeast Pierce County and northeast Lewis County in Washington state. The park was established on March 2, 1899, as the fourth national park in the United States, preservin ...

Olympic National Park Olympic National Park is a United States national park located in the State of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. The park has four regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west-side temperate rainforest, and the forests of the drier ...

) and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

preferring

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s and

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artif ...

s of

foothills Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topographi ...

and

subalpine zone Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

s. In British Columbia, Canada, it is locally common on the

Gulf Islands The Gulf Islands are a group of islands in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia. Etymology The name "Gulf Islands" comes from " Gulf of Georgia," the original term used by George Vancouver in hi ...

and

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

(particularly in the southern half of the island). It is found in the state of Washington in Wahkiakum, Skamania, Klickitat, Kittitas, Chelan, Pierce, Thurston and

Clallam Klallam (also Clallam, although the spelling with "K" is preferred in all four modern Klallam communities) refers to four related indigenous Native American/First Nations communities from the Pacific Northwest of North America. The Klallam cu ...

counties. In

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

it has been found in the coastal counties of

Curry A curry is a dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, mainly associated with South Asian cuisine. In southern India, leaves from the curry tree may be included. There are many varieties of curry. The choice of spices for each dish in trad ...

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking * Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...

, and

Lane In road transport, a lane is part of a roadway that is designated to be used by a single line of vehicles to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. Most public roads ( highways) have at least two lanes, one for traffic in eac ...

; and in the adjacent or nearby counties of Josephine, Jackson,

Klamath Klamath may refer to: Ethnic groups * Klamath people, a Native American people of California and Oregon **Klamath Tribes, a federally recognized group of tribes in Oregon * Klamath language, spoken by the Klamath people Places in the United States ...

Benton Benton may refer to: Places Canada *Benton, a local service district south of Woodstock, New Brunswick *Benton, Newfoundland and Labrador United Kingdom * Benton, Devon, near Bratton Fleming * Benton, Tyne and Wear United States *Benton, Alabam ...

, Linn, Jefferson, Marion, Wasco, Yamhill, Hood River, Multnomah and

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

. In

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, it is native to the northern coastal coniferous and

red fir ''Abies magnifica'', the red fir or silvertip fir, is a western North American fir, native to the mountains of southwest Oregon and California in the United States. It is a high-elevation tree, typically occurring at elevation, though only rare ...

s in Del Norte,

Humboldt Humboldt may refer to: People * Alexander von Humboldt, German natural scientist, brother of Wilhelm von Humboldt * Wilhelm von Humboldt, German linguist, philosopher, and diplomat, brother of Alexander von Humboldt Fictional characters * ...

and Mendocino counties; deeper inland to Siskiyou,

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the ...

to Shasta and Glenn counties. Few samples have been located in

Lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much lar ...

, Colusa and Modoc counties.

References

External links

Jepson Manual treatment: ''Ribes lobbii''

Pacific Northwest Flowers, Gallery of ''Ribes lobbii'' pictures
{{Taxonbar, from=Q16758210 lobbii Flora of British Columbia Flora of the West Coast of the United States Plants described in 1876 Flora without expected TNC conservation status