Gooseberry - WikiHQ

thumb|upright|Green gooseberries

thumb|upright|Red berries of [[Ribes uva-crispa ]]

Gooseberry ( or (American and northern British) or (southern British)) is a common name for many species of Ribes (which also includes currants), as well as a large number of plants of similar appearance, and also several unrelated plants (see List of gooseberries). The berries of those in the genus Ribes (sometimes placed in the genus Grossularia) are edible and may be green, orange, red, purple, yellow, white, or black.

Etymology

The goose in gooseberry has been mistakenly seen as a corruption of either the Dutch word or the allied German , or of the earlier forms of the French . Alternatively, the word has been connected to the Middle High German ('curl, crisped'), in Latin as . thumb|upright|[[Ribes uva-crispa by Otto Wilhelm Thomé (1885), showing the distinctive curl of the flower petals]] However, the Oxford English Dictionary takes the more literal derivation from goose and berry as probable because "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". In Britain, gooseberries may informally be called goosegogs.

Gooseberry bush was 19th-century slang for pubic hair, and from this comes the saying that babies are "born under a gooseberry bush".

Ecology

thumb|right|Ribes uva-crispa, blossoming in [[Latvia]]

Black bears, various birds and small mammals eat the berries, while game animals, coyotes, foxes and raccoons browse the foliage.

Cultivation

In history

William Turner described 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 corrupted into the present English vernacular word.

<blockquote>In Britain, it is often found in copses and hedgerows and about old ruins, but the gooseberry has been cultivated for so long that it is difficult to distinguish wild bushes from feral ones, or to determine where the gooseberry fits into the native flora of the island. Although gooseberries are now abundant in Germany and France, it does not appear to have been much grown there in the Middle Ages; 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.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The climate of the British Isles seems peculiarly adapted to bring the gooseberry to perfection, and it may be grown successfully even in the most northern parts of Scotland; 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°. 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.

Ribes gooseberries are commonly raised from cuttings rather than seed; cuttings planted in the autumn will take root quickly and begin to bear fruit within a few years. Nevertheless, bushes planted from seed also rapidly reach maturity, exhibit similar pest-tolerance, and yield heavily. Fruit is produced on lateral spurs and the previous year's shoots.

Insect habitat

Gooseberry bushes (Ribes) are hosts to magpie moth (Abraxas grossulariata) caterpillars. v-moth (Macaria wauaria), and gooseberry sawfly (Nematus ribesii).

Culinary uses

Gooseberries are edible and can be eaten raw, or cooked as an ingredient in desserts, such as pies,

Nutrition

Raw gooseberries are 88% water, 10% carbohydrates, and 1% each of fat and protein. In a reference amount of , raw gooseberries supply 44 calories and are a rich source of vitamin C (31% of the Daily Value), with no other micronutrients in significant content.