Santa Cruz Island gooseberry

Ribes menziesii Pursh var. thacherianum Jepson, Fl. Calif. 2: 156. 1936

Plants 1-2.5 m. Stems erect, densely white soft-pubescent; spines at nodes absent or 1-3, 4-8 mm; prickles on internodes scattered, glandular and eglan-dular. Leaves: petiole 1-2 cm, copiously white-pilose; blade oblong to roundish, shallowly 5-lobed, cleft 1/4-1/3 to midrib, 2-3 cm, base truncate, surfaces soft-pubescent abaxially, subglabrous adaxially, lobes rounded, margins coarsely crenate-dentate, apex rounded to acute. Inflorescences pendent, solitary flowers or 2-flowered racemes, 2-4 cm, axis white-pilose. Pedicels not jointed, 6-8 mm, pilose; bracts broadly lanceolate, 2-3 mm, white-pilose. Flowers: hypanthium pinkish, narrowly tubular, 4-5 mm (1/2 as long as sepals), white-pilose, not glandular; sepals not overlapping, erect, pinkish, lanceolate, 9-10 mm; petals connivent, erect, white, oblong, inrolled, 4-6 mm; nectary disc not prominent; stamens 1.3 times as long as petals; filaments linear, 4-6 mm, glabrous; anthers white, lanceolate, somewhat sagittate, 3 mm, apex apiculate; ovary pilose, not glandular; styles connate nearly 3/4 their lengths, 9-11 mm, glabrous. Berries palatability not known, purple, subglobose, 7 mm, pilose-hairy with nonglandular spines.

Flowering Nov-Jul. Ravines in pine forests; 0-700 m; Calif.

Ribes thacherianum is known only from Santa Cruz Island, Santa Barbara County. The indehiscent part of the anther is short and dark.