# Berry/Shrub ID please.



## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

I'm hoping someone can help me...This shrub is planted near our front door (obviously here when we bought the house). It is about 10 feet tall and has berries on it now. It is attractive when it blooms in the spring, but I worry if the berries are edible or poisonous. My own children do not eat things but my neice grabbed a handfull of the berries when she was here. One pic is the berry and the other is a leaf. The berries ripen from a redish to a blackish colour and there is a little "tail on it" . Thanks!















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## Bear (Jan 25, 2005)

Does it have thorns? Almost look like blackberries, are the berries large?


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## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

No thorns, and the berries are smooth about the size of a choke cherry.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

I've got those too CG. out at my place in the country. never did know what they were. hopefully someone here will be able to tell us. ...Georgia.


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## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

here's a couple of better pics. I'm not that good with close-ups, sorry







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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i am thinking it is some type of ribes...maybe wild currant?


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

I can't tell real well but from the shape of the leaf it appears to me to be currants. Lots of small seeds inside of the berry?


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## ksfarmer (Apr 28, 2007)

Could it be a gooseberry?? Although the gooseberries I have are covered with small stickers or thorns, might be some domestic varieties are thornless.


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## Bear (Jan 25, 2005)

Could be a black curranrt bush.


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## naturewoman (Nov 12, 2002)

I have one. My cousin brought me a cutting from her bush and the berries are edible and good for pies. I want to call it gooseberry too, but don't think that's right. I'll see if I can find it though, because I've been wanting to write down the name of it so I'll remember it. It's a beautiful yellow flowering bush, right? No thorns either.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Mulberry. I've got them all over here. Berries are edible and quite tasty.


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## naturewoman (Nov 12, 2002)

I do believe it's a gooseberry. The leaves on your bush looks just like mine, but I've yet to see berries on my bush. A currant has a different shape to the leaf, but they are related. Some gooseberries are spikey, but not all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gooseberry


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## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

Oh Wow! and I was going to chop it down because I was worried it was just some weird inedible ornamental. Glad I asked, now off to look for recipes! I researched gooseberry images and came up with this cultivar and it looks the same.
http://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com/Plant_Families/Grossulariaceae_pics/Ribes_spp.LavaLake.jpg


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I should have asked if the fruit was bumpy or smooth. Mulberries are bumpy like rasp or black berries.


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## naturewoman (Nov 12, 2002)

I had to ask my cousin what she brought me, and she called it a crandle berry. I couldn't find anything on that at all, and had to call a nursery, who looked up currant, and came up with Crandle currant, so apparently mine is a yellow flowering, purple berried currant bush. And the leaf looks just like yours. Gooseberry and currant are all in the same family, and the official name is grossulariaceae saxifrage. The berry is primarily used for jellies and jams. I found a recipe for oatmeal currant bread (uses dried currants) in an old cookbook. So if you don't have enough to can with, try drying some and using them in baking. Mine is supposed to make excellent jelly. I can't wait for it to get big enough to produce fruit so I can try it. The flowers alone in spring make it worth having. It's a little bit like a forsythia...an early bloomer and covered with masses of flowers.

My cousin said it gets about five feet tall and will send out runners, so you can start new plants from it.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

naturewoman said:


> My cousin said it gets about five feet tall and will send out runners, so you can start new plants from it.


well...hello friend.


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## naturewoman (Nov 12, 2002)

LOL You'll have to wait awhile friend...mine is about six inches tall. It bloomed last year, (still in the pot) and it was about a foot tall, and then my dog thought it was a dry twig when it went dormant, and dragged it out in the yard (pot and all) and chewed it down to almost nothing. It survived, but may be a few years before it's big enough to bloom again, or produce fruit or runners.

But, hey! I'll be happy to trade you in a couple of years, for a start off your flowering almond!


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

deal!


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

If it is a gooseberry, and if you have any white pine in the area, I would consider getting rid of the bush. Gooseberry bushes serve as an alternate host in the white pine blister rust cycle. Some states do not allow the planting of gooseberry and others actually have had programs to eradicate the species. White pine blister rust has dessimated the species in many areas.


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

While it could be a gooseberry CF, I think it looks much more like a currant. The berries are very much like a currant in size and color and the leaves look the part as well. Gooseberries are also notoriously thorny, while currants lack them.


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## northergardener (Dec 12, 2007)

Definitely not a mulberry.
I agree it looks like a current/ribes.


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

It's definately not gooseberry, the leaves look similar, but the fruit looks nothing like that.

Not mulberry either, they have compound berries.

It does looks most like a currant, but again NQR (I LOVE blackcurrants).

I wouldn't bake it in a pie to find out :nono:


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

canadiangirl said:


> Oh Wow! and I was going to chop it down because I was worried it was just some weird inedible ornamental. Glad I asked, now off to look for recipes! I researched gooseberry images and came up with this cultivar and it looks the same.
> http://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com/Plant_Families/Grossulariaceae_pics/Ribes_spp.LavaLake.jpg


Hmmm, maybe then! I've never seen ones this dark before.

They are mostly green to blush pink.


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## naturewoman (Nov 12, 2002)

Tiempo, the currants on my bush, which my cousin called crandle berry, are supposed to be dark purple. Just like the ones in her picture.


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

Hmmm, when I google candle berry, it comes up as being another name for bay berry..

http://www.herbsguide.net/bayberry.html


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

Black gooseberry ?

I found this..

http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/pi/Go-Native/PhotoDisplay.aspx?PhotoID=425


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## naturewoman (Nov 12, 2002)

Tiempo said:


> Hmmm, when I google candle berry, it comes up as being another name for bay berry..
> 
> http://www.herbsguide.net/bayberry.html


Not candle berry. Crandle berry. You won't find anything on the internet under crandle berry. It is actually a currant. I found that out from my nursery, after I couldn't google crandle berry and come up with anything.


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

naturewoman said:


> Not candle berry. Crandle berry. You won't find anything on the internet under crandle berry. It is actually a currant. I found that out from my nursery, after I couldn't google crandle berry and come up with anything.


Oops, me bad, time for glasses I fear


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## Guest (Aug 18, 2008)

I'm sure it's not, but the leaves & berries look like the English 'Hawthorn'.
Some varieties have no thorns. The closest relative I know of on your continent is the Tehocote ( not sure of the spelling - but i've seen it in Mexico).
It is quite slow growing, and makes a small tree. 
Try testing the berries by rubbing against your lips - if no reaction, try chewing - if still no reaction, try swallowing one, if your still alive tomorrow, they will be edible!!


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

It looks identical to the wild currants in my berry book. Same leaf shape and berry.


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## naturelover (Jun 6, 2006)

Canadiangirl, that's wild blackcurrant you have there, _Ribes americanum. _


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