Plants 0.5-1.5 m. Stems erect to spreading, glabrous or pubescent, glabrescent; spines at nodes absent or 1-3, 5-15 mm; prickles on internodes absent or sparse. Leaves: petiole 1-3 cm, pilose and stipitate-glandular; blade pentangular, 3-5-lobed, cleft (1/3-)1/2-3/4 to midrib, 1.7-5 cm, base truncate to cordate, surfaces glabrate or pubescent abaxially, pilose and sometimes with stipitate-glandular hairs adaxially, lobes deltate or cuneate-deltate, margins with rounded teeth, apex rounded or broadly acute. Inflorescences spreading, solitary flowers or 2(-4)-flowered corymbs, 4-5 cm, axis pilose and stipitate-glandular. Pedicels not jointed (sometimes with abcission layer at bract junction), 5-16 mm, glabrous or pilose and stipitate-glandular; bracts lanceolate to ovate, 1.5-2.5 mm, hairy and glandular on margins. Flowers: hypanthium greenish white, campanulate, 1.8-4 mm, glabrous or scattered-hairy; sepals not overlapping, erect to recurved, greenish, oblong, 1.5-4 mm; petals widely separated, erect, white, obovate, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 1-2.5 mm; nectary disc not prominent; stamens as long as or slightly longer than petals; filaments linear, 1-2 mm, glabrous; anthers greenish yellow, oval, 0.4-0.6 mm, apex rounded; ovary setose with eglandular or gland-tipped bristles, sometimes sparsely villous; styles connate to middle or 0.8 mm proximal to stigmas, 4.5-7 mm, villous on proximal 1/2 or glabrous. Berries palatable, greenish to pale red, globose, 7-15 mm, densely bristly or spiny. 2n = 16. Flowering May-Jun. Rich hardwoods and conifer-hardwoods, rocky slopes, boulderfields, heath balds; 100-2100 m; N.B., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.Dak., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.
Low shrub to 1.5 m tall Leaves: alternate, stalked, 2 - 5 cm long and wide, palmately three- to five-lobed, egg-shaped to rounded with a flat to heart-shaped to rounded base, palmately veined, toothed, softly hairy. Stalk 0.5 - 1.6 cm long, hairy, becoming hairless with age. Inflorescence: a single flower or a small, loose cluster (raceme) of up to four flowers, 2 - 6 cm long. Flowers: green. Stalk slender, 1 - 2.5 cm long, and hairy. Stamens five, equaling or slightly longer than the petals, shorter than the calyx. Styles two, undivided. Sepals: forming a five-lobed tube (calyx). Calyx green, bell-shaped. Lobes shorter than the tube. Petals: five, in the throat of the calyx tube, 1 - 2.5 mm long, reverse egg-shaped with a somewhat flat base, alternate with calyx lobes. Fruit: a juicy berry, many-seeded, crowned by the shriveled calyx, reddish purple, 8 - 12 mm wide, spherical to ellipsoid, prickly. Branches: often with slender, 0.5 - 1.5 cm long spines. Nodal spines one to three.
Similar species: The similar Ribes hirtellum and R. missouriense differ by having smooth berries and calyx lobes that are as long or longer than the tube.
Flowering: mid-April to early June
Habitat and ecology: Frequent in mesic woods, especially in the eastern sector of the Chicago Region. Also found in springy areas of the woods.
Occurence in the Chicago region: native
Etymology: Ribes comes from the Arabic name for a shrub that has acidic fruit. Cynosbati comes from a Greek word meaning dog-berry.
Internodes prickly or smooth; nodal spines (0)1-2(3), 5-15 mm; lvs 2-5 cm long and wide, truncate to cordate at base, pubescent, usually not glandular; peduncles 7-25 mm, with 1-3(4) fls on pedicels 5-16 mm, the frs thus held well away from the stems; bracts glandular-ciliate; hypanthium campanulate from a rounded base, 3-4.5 mm (above the ovary); sep broadly oblong, 2.5-4 mm, soon reflexed; pet obovate, subtruncate, 1-2.5 mm; stamens equaling the pet; style equaling the sep, mostly undivided; ovary with stalked glands that become stiff prickles on the greenish to pale red fr; 2n=16. Moist woods; Que. to n. Minn. and e. N.D., s. to n. Ga., sw. Ala., Ark., and e. Okla. May, June.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.