Ribes divaricatum

Ribes divaricatum is a species in the genus Ribes found in the forests, woodlands, and coastal scrub of western North America from British Columbia to California. The three accepted varieties have various common names which include the word "gooseberry". Other common names include coast black gooseberry, wild gooseberry, Worcesterberry, or spreading-branched gooseberry.

Description
Ribes divaricatum is a shrub sometimes reaching 3 m in height with woody branches with one to three thick brown spines at leaf nodes. The leaves are generally palmate in shape and edged with teeth. The blades are up to 6 cm long and borne on petioles.

The inflorescence is a small cluster of hanging flowers, each with reflexed purple-tinted green sepals and smaller, white to red petals encircling long, protruding stamens. The fruit is a sweet-tasting berry up to 1 cm wide which is black when ripe. It is similar to Ribes lacustre and R. lobbii, but the former has smaller, reddish to maroon flowers and the latter has reddish flowers that resemble those of fuchsias and sticky leaves.

Taxonomy

 * Varieties
 * Ribes divaricatum var. divaricatum, or spreading gooseberry is found in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
 * Ribes divaricatum var. parishii, called Parish's gooseberry, is found only in California.
 * Ribes divaricatum var. pubiflorum, known as straggly gooseberry is native to both California and Oregon.

Uses
The berries are edible and are ripe when black.

The fruit was food for a number of Native American groups of the Pacific Northwest, and other parts of the plant, especially the bark, was used for medicinal purposes.