Gooseberries

General Facts for the Gooseberry
Gooseberry Characteristics
1. Mature bushes spread to about 5 feet across.
2. A mature gooseberry can yield as much as 10 pounds of berries.
3. The taste of a gooseberry is a sour, bitter and tart flavored when raw. *RECIPES*
4. The shape of the gooseberry is an oval.
5. It comes in colors like white, yellow, green and red.
6. The maple shape of the leaves grow alternately, not opposite of one another.
7. A gooseberry bush may grow up to be 1.5 meters.
8. The gooseberries sometimes have flowers in small clusters on them.
The gooseberry is a shrub with prickly stems they also have small flowers.

Medical uses for gooseberries
1. Pregnant women often had a yen for gooseberries, especially because of their cooling qualities to the stomach and their ability to quench thirst. They were said to be conducive to good appetite and a remedy for catarrh.
2. Indians in the Rocky Mountains ate what they called porridge of cooked gooseberries for fever and for seizures of malaria marked by paroxysms of chills, fever and sweating recurring at regular intervals.
3. Hopes resorted to the fruit of the gooseberry for stomach ache.
4. For women incurring uterine difficulties after a number of births, a root tea from the prickly gooseberry (Ribs cynosbati).
5. Gooseberry tea was used to cure canker sores and for mouthwash.

Where Gooseberries Are Found

1. Gooseberries grow from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska and from the east to the West Coast.
2. Gooseberries are found in conifer forests often.
3. Gooseberries are found in temperate and cold regions of the world.
4. Gooseberries are found in England and North America.
5. Gooseberries grow mainly in North Central, Middle Atlantic, Rocky, Mountain, and Pacific States.

States That Allow Gooseberry Bushes

1. Alaska
2. California
3. Colorado
4. Connecticut
5. Georgia
6. Hawaii
7. Idaho
8. Illinois
9. Indiana
10. Kansas
11. Kentucky
12. Minnesota
13. Nebraska
14. Nevada
15. New Mexico
16. North Dakota
17. Iowa
18. Oklahoma
19. Oregon
20. South Dakota
21. Texas
22. Utah

COMMON NAMES

Wild Gooseberry
Eastern Wild Gooseberry
Prickly Gooseberry
Bristly Gooseberry
Smooth Wild Gooseberry
Slender Gooseberry
Whitestem Gooseberry
Swamp Gooseberry
Garden Gooseberry
Northern Gooseberry
Missouri Gooseberry

FACTS FROM:

Encyclopedia; World Book 1998 Interactive
Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
Elias, Thomas & Dykeman, Peter. Edible Wild Plants. 1990.
Krisa, Bohdan. Flowering Plants. 1993
North American Wildlife
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