# Miccosukee Gooseberry (Ribes echinellum)

> A federally threatened gooseberry of rich Southern woods, a low spiny shrub whose leaves drop in summer and return in fall, with spiny berries in spring.

Also called Florida gooseberry, spiny gooseberry, Grossularia echinella. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/miccosukee-gooseberry/

![Miccosukee gooseberry (Ribes echinellum) spiny green berries hanging below small lobed leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/miccosukee-gooseberry-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Public domain · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARibes_echinellum.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 2 to 5 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 7 to 9
- Grows wild in: Rich moist slopes, the forest understory and stream banks
- Native range: Florida and South Carolina
- Sun: Part, Shade
- Soil moisture: Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Rare, Tolerates shade, Wildlife value
- 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

Miccosukee gooseberry is a low, spiny gooseberry known wild from only two places, the wooded slopes above Lake Miccosukee in north Florida and the hardwood slopes along Stevens Creek in western South Carolina. It spreads into dense patches, rooting where its arching stems touch the ground, but seedlings are almost never found in the wild. It is listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Florida lists it as endangered, and NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled. Plant it under hardwoods in a shaded, well-drained woodland garden, where its spiny stems can spread into a 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 shrub 2 to 5 feet tall with erect or arching stems that root where they touch the ground. Each node carries two or three spines up to about 5/8 inch long, and the small leaves have three lobes. The leaves drop in summer, and new ones come in fall and last through the winter.

Pale greenish flowers hang singly or in pairs on long stalks from late February into April, with cream sepals swept back and long stamens tipped in pink. The fruit ripens in April and May, a round berry about half an inch across, covered in gland-tipped spines. Cotton mice eat the fruit.

It grows wild only on the shaded slopes of mixed hardwood and beech and magnolia forests, over limestone, in Jefferson County, Florida, and McCormick County, South Carolina. Where it grows it is abundant, with thousands of clumps.

## How to grow Miccosukee Gooseberry

Miccosukee gooseberry grows in filtered light or shade under hardwoods, and it is not found in full sun. It wants the moist but well-drained sandy loam of rich hardwood forest, and in the wild it grows over limestone. Poorly drained ground and crowding by other plants hold it back. Plant it 3 feet from a wall and set plants 3 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. Its seed is hard to raise, and laboratory tests with many chilling and scarifying treatments failed. Whole ripe fruits pressed partly into bare mineral soil outdoors in July have come up the next spring. Seed left in fruit to rot on potting soil in a greenhouse has also sprouted, though sparingly.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short, and keep privet, Japanese honeysuckle and other invasive plants away from it. Deer browse it and feral hogs root it up, so fence young plants where either is about.

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. White peach scale and spider mites turn up on wild plants without harming them. Saplings are shipped only in state and otherwise pickup only.

## Sources

- [NatureServe Explorer: Ribes echinellum, Miccosukee Gooseberry](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.159888/Ribes_echinellum)
- [US Fish and Wildlife Service: ECOS species report](https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/3580)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 8: Ribes echinellum](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250065867)
- [Florida Natural Areas Inventory: Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Florida, Miccosukee gooseberry, January 2024](https://www.fnai.org/PDFs/FieldGuides/Ribes_echinellum.pdf)
- [Florida Natural Areas Inventory: Element Tracking Summary, 6/18/2026](https://www.fnai.org/PDFs/tracking/element_tracking_summary_current.pdf)
- [Kral, R. 1983. A report on some rare, threatened, or endangered forest-related vascular plants of the South. USDA Forest Service Technical Publication R8-TP2, vol. 1, Ribes echinellum](https://archive.org/details/CAT84807330_01)
- [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](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/forest_health/diseases/white_pine_blister_rust.htm)
- [North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Plant Industry: 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: White Pine Blister Rust](https://www.nhbugs.org/damaging-insects-diseases/white-pine-blister-rust)
- [Rhode Island DEM: 250-RICR-40-10-2, Suppression of White Pine Blister Rust](https://dem.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur861/files/pubs/regs/regs/agric/pinebls2.pdf)
- [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)
- [South Carolina Department of Natural Resources: rare species index](https://www.dnr.sc.gov/species/index.html)

## 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 birds: caterpillars, fruit, mast, nests and winter cover, month by month](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-birds/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Miccosukee Gooseberry, add ?species=miccosukee-gooseberry with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=miccosukee-gooseberry&zone=7&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Miccosukee Gooseberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=miccosukee-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=miccosukee-gooseberry
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Miccosukee 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=miccosukee-gooseberry
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Miccosukee 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=miccosukee-gooseberry:1
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Miccosukee Gooseberry flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.