# Granite Gooseberry (Ribes curvatum)

> A rare gooseberry of rocky Southern woods, a low spiny shrub whose arching stems root into a patch, with hanging white flowers in spring.

Also called Georgia gooseberry, Grossularia curvata. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/granite-gooseberry/

![Granite gooseberry (Ribes curvatum) hanging white flowers with long stamens along an arching stem](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/granite-gooseberry-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Eric Hunt, CC BY-SA 4.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARibes_curvatum.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 2 to 10 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 7 to 9
- Grows wild in: Rocky ground, rich moist slopes and the forest understory
- Native range: 7 states, north to Tennessee, south to Louisiana and west to Texas (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas)
- Sun: Part, Shade
- Soil moisture: Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Rare, Showy flowers, Tolerates shade
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

Granite gooseberry is a low, spiny gooseberry of rich, rocky deciduous woods, found in scattered stands from Tennessee and Georgia west to Oklahoma and Texas. Its arching stems root where their tips touch the ground, so a plant slowly knits into a patch. In spring its white flowers hang beneath the small, three-lobed leaves, each with long stamens. Tennessee lists it as threatened. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Oklahoma and Tennessee and imperiled in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. Set it at a shaded woodland edge or among boulders on a slope, where its stems can root into a low patch.

## Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a medium grower, like our wild black currant, about a foot and a half a year. It makes a spreading shrub of 2 to 10 feet, often much shorter, with erect to arching stems that root at the tips. Each node carries up to three spines, and the rounded leaves, about an inch long, have three lobes.

White flowers hang singly or in clusters of up to four from March to May, with white sepals and long stamens. The berry ripens in June and July, greenish to reddish purple, a third to half an inch across, smooth or glandular-hairy.

It grows wild in scattered stands from Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama west to Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. Its home is rich, rocky deciduous woods and bouldery slopes, from about 650 to 2,600 feet above sea level.

## How to grow Granite Gooseberry

Granite gooseberry grows in the part shade or shade of deciduous woods, on rocky or bouldery slopes that drain well and stay moist. Plant it 3 feet from a wall and set plants 5 feet apart. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, in late fall or winter, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch ring clear of the stems. It is sown as other gooseberries are. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall, an eighth to a quarter inch deep. Most currant and gooseberry seed comes up the spring after sowing.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short, and keep a mulch of leaves over the roots. Its arching stems root where they touch the soil, so give it room to widen into a patch.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Like every currant and gooseberry, it can host white pine blister rust, which kills white pines and other five-needled pines. The spores that carry the rust from gooseberry to pine rarely travel more than 900 feet, so keep it at least that far from white pines. Several states restrict or ban planting currants and gooseberries for this reason, among them Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and North Carolina, so check your state's rules first.

## Sources

- [Flora of North America, vol. 8: Ribes curvatum](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250065865)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Ribes curvatum, Granite Gooseberry](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.128823/Ribes_curvatum)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Ribes curvatum](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RICU)
- [Tennessee Natural Heritage Program: Rare Plant List 2025](https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/environment/natural-areas/documents/na_tn-rare-plant-list.pdf)
- [Georgia Biodiversity Portal: Ribes curvatum profile](https://georgiabiodiversity.org/portal/profile?group=plants&es_id=16065)
- [Alabama Natural Heritage Program: 2023 tracking list](https://cosam.auburn.edu/biology/alnhp/_assets/2023_trackinglist.pdf)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Ribes chapter, Pfister and Sloan](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Ribes.pdf)
- [Maine Forest Service: White Pine Blister Rust fact sheet and Chapter 1 rule](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/forest_health/diseases/white_pine_blister_rust.htm)
- [North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services: White Pine Blister Rust](https://www.ncagr.gov/plant-industry-white-pine-blister-rust)
- [NHBugs (UNH Cooperative Extension with the N.H. Division of Forests and Lands) and Rhode Island DEM 250-RICR-40-10-2](https://www.nhbugs.org/damaging-insects-diseases/white-pine-blister-rust)
- [UMass Extension: Currants and Gooseberries, Prohibited Towns in Massachusetts, undated](https://www.umass.edu/agriculture-food-environment/sites/ag.umass.edu/files/fact-sheets/pdf/currants_gooseberries_prohibited_towns.pdf)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for bees: pollen, nectar, nesting and a bloom calendar from willow to witch hazel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-bees/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Granite Gooseberry, add ?species=granite-gooseberry with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=granite-gooseberry&zone=7&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Granite Gooseberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=granite-gooseberry): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=granite-gooseberry
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Granite Gooseberry is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=granite-gooseberry
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Granite Gooseberry needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=granite-gooseberry:1
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Granite Gooseberry flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.