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
Ribes roezlii flowers hanging pendent from the branches. Each flower has five reflexed red-purple sepals around a tube-shaped ring of smaller white or pinkish petals, the stamens and stigmas protruding. The fruit is a red or purple berry up to 2.5 centimeters long which is covered in thick, long spines. Among other currants and gooseberries with overlapping ranges, such as mountain gooseberry ("Ribes montigenum") or wax currant ("Ribes cereum"), the sierra gooseberry is especially notable for the large size and extreme spininess of its berries, and for the absence of a noticeable dried flower remnant at the end of the fruit. Seeds