Common gooseberry, or rejected gooseberry, or European gooseberry (lat. Ribes uva-crispa).
A small shrub up to 1-1.2 m high, with dark gray or dark brown exfoliating bark. The branches bear tripartite, very simple spines of leaf origin. Young shoots are round, greyish, surrounded by needle-like thorns and cause black spots. The buds are brown, covered with red scales, with pubescent white hairs along the edge.
The leaves are petiolate, round, 6 cm long, short-haired and dull. Leaf blade with events - five blades and a blunt-toothed edge.
The flowers are bisexual, greenish or reddish, solitary or two or three in the leaf axils. The hypanthium, like the sepals, is pubescent. Blooms in May.
The fruits are berries, oval or almost spherical, up to 12 mm long (sometimes up to 30-40 mm), glabrous or coarsely bristly, with well-developed veins. Green, yellow or purple. Collected in June - August.
Common gooseberry is one of the main berry bushes. The fruits are eaten. Valued as a honey plant - the earliest of the berry bushes.
Not very picky about soils. It will grow well on both neutral and slightly acidic soils (pH 6.5 - 7.0). But for good fruiting, it certainly needs fertile, light, loose soil rich in organic matter.