Gummy gooseberry

Appearance

''Ribes lobbii'' is a deciduous, loosely branched shrub, about half a meter to one meter 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.

Distribution

Gummy gooseberries are distributed sporadically throughout the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and British Columbia in Canada preferring forests and meadows of foothills and subalpine zones.

In British Columbia, Canada, it is locally common on the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island .

It is found in the state of Washington in Wahkiakum, Skamania, Klickitat, Kittitas, Chelan, Pierce, Thurston and Clallam counties.

In Oregon it has been found in the coastal counties of Curry, Douglas, and Lane; and in the adjacent or nearby counties of Josephine, Jackson, Klamath, Benton, Linn, Jefferson, Marion, Wasco, Yamhill, Hood River, Multnomah and Columbia.

In California, it is native to the northern coastal coniferous and red fir forests in Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino counties; deeper inland to Siskiyou, Trinity to Shasta and Glenn counties. Few samples have been located in Lake, Colusa and Modoc counties.

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.