Victor's Gooseberry

Grossularia greeneiana (Heller) Coville & Britton
Ribes Greeneian-um Heller, Muhlenbergia 1 : 111. 1905.
A shrub 3.5 m. high or less, the bark brownish-gray, glabrous ; young twigs densely bristly, the bristles deciduous ; nodal spines acicular, 1.5 cm. long or less. Leaves orbicular or ovate-orbicular in outline, cordate, glandular -hairy on both surfaces, and softly pubescent beneath, 2-4 cm. broad, 3-5-lobed, the lobes coarsely crenate, the pubescent and glandular petiole usually somewhat shorter than the blade ; flowers solitary or 2 together, nodding ; peduncle glandular and pubescent, 2-3 cm. long; pedicels much shorter than the peduncle, only 3 or 4 mm. long ; bract suborbicular, thin, ciliate, shorter than the pedicels ; hypanthium nearly white, about 3 mm. long and thick, glandular-pubescent; sepals greenish-white, oblong-lanceolate, acutish, about 7 or 8 mm. long, glandular-pubescent; petals white, truncate, about 4 mm. long, involute; filaments as long as the sepals or a little longer, flattened at the base; anthers lanceolate, about 2.5 mm. long; ovary densely glandular-hairy ; style slightly exceeding the stamens, 2-cleft ; berry oval, about 1.5 cm. long, very densely covered with weak gland-tipped bristles.
Type locality : Vacaville, Solano County, California. Distribution : Type locality and vicinity.

Grossularia victoris (Greene) Coville & Britton
Rihes Victoris Greene, Pittonia 1 : 224. 1888.
Ribes Menziesii Vic lor is Jancz. M^m. Soc. Geneve 35: 363. 1907.
Ribes Menziesii minus Jancz. M^m. Soc. Geneve 35 : 363. 1907.
A shrub about 2 m. high, the young twigs varying from densely bristly to nearly or quite smooth, puberulent and somewhat viscid; nodal spines acicular, widely diverging, 1-2 cm. long. Leaves suborbicular in outline, 5 cm. wide or less, thin, 3-lobed or 5-lobed, cordate at the base, loosely glandular-hairy, and often very sparingly villous also, on both surfaces, the lobes coarsely crenate, the petiole as long as the blade or shorter ; flowers solitary or 2 together, nodding; peduncles slender, pubescent and glandular, 1.5-2 cm. long; pedicels only about 3 mm. long, about as long as the orbicular-erose or entire glandular bracts; hypanthium greenishwhite, densely glandular, about 3 mm. long and nearly as thick as long ; sepals white, linear-oblong, 6-11 mm. long, recurved ; petals acutish and erose ; filaments shorter than the sepals, often scarcely exceeding the petals ; anthers oblongovate, 2-3 mm. long ; ovary glandular-pubescent ; berry oval, dark-colored, about 2 cm. long^ 1.5 cm. in diameter, densely glandular-bristly.
Type locality : Near the base of Mt. Tamalpais, Marin County, California. Distribution : Middle California.

Ribes victoris is an uncommon North American species of currant known by the common name Victor's gooseberry. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the chaparral and woods of canyons in the San Francisco Bay Area and counties to the north, as far as Humboldt County.

Ribes victorisis an erect shrub growing up to two meters (80 inches) in height, its stem coated in sticky glandular hairs and some bristles, with spines occurring at nodes. The hairy, glandular leaves are divided into a few lobes which are lined with teeth. The inflorescence is made up of one or two flowers hanging from the branches. Each flower has five reflexed sepals which are white with a pink blush at the bases around a central corolla of white petals. The whitish stamens and stigmas protrude from the center. The fruit is a yellow berry about a centimeter wide which is covered in glandular bristles.