Jostaberry Jostaberry The jostaberry ("Ribes" × "nidigrolaria") is a complex-cross fruit bush in the genus "Ribes", involving three original species, the black currant "R. nigrum", the North American coastal black gooseberry "R. divaricatum", and the European gooseberry "R. uva-crispa". It is similar to "Ribes × culverwellii", the Jochelbeere, which is descended from just two of these species, "R. nigrum" and "R. uva-crispa". The cultivated plants are tetraploid. They are descended from two separate first-generation crosses, both of which produced very few fruit. Fertile tetraploids were produced using colchicine. The name "Jostaberry" was created via combining the German words for blackcurrant and
Empetrum nigrum it for food, sometimes storing in quantity for winter, and like it mixed with lard or oil. The fruits are usually collected in fall, but if not picked they may persist on the plant and can be picked in the spring. Empetrum nigrum Empetrum nigrum, crowberry, black crowberry, or, in western Alaska, blackberry, is a flowering plant species in the heather family Ericaceae with a near circumboreal distribution in the northern hemisphere. It is also native in the Falkland Islands. It is usually dioecious, but there is a bisexual tetraploid subspecies, Empetrum nigrum" ssp. "hermaphroditum, that occurs in more northerly