Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council Plants Resource Page

Plant of the Month - Fuchsia-Flowered Gooseberry

Fern-Leaf Phacelia

Fuchsia-Flowered Gooseberry

Click to return to the top of this page.
Image Gallery - Click to enlarge

Plant Description

Common Name(s):Fuchsia-Flowered Gooseberry
Scientific Name:Ribes speciosum
Family:Grossulariaceae (Gooseberry)
Plant Type:Shrub
Size:up to 10 feet
Habitat:shaded canyons in Sage Scrub and Chaparral
Blooms:January to May
Fire Response:Stump Sprout or Seed

Fuchsia Flowered Gooseberry is a common, colorful and interesting-looking plant, with bright red tubular flowers, deep dark shiny green leaves, and spiny stems. The flowers can be found in bloom from January through May.

The bright red flowers line the stems of the plant, sometimes displaying their color for up to several feet long. They individually are up to an inch long and bristly, with one to four flowers occurring together on a common stem. The protrusions you see from the bottom of the downwardly-drooping tubular flower are the stamens. The seed is even more bristly than the flower, and sticky to boot. The roundish three-lobed shiny green leaves are up to an inch and a half diameter and accompanied by spines on the stem. A word about those spines: they are as sharp as they look!

Migrating hummingbirds are attracted to the tubular flowers on this plant. The genus name Ribes is derived from an old Persian word. The species name speciosum means "showy".

Contributed by Liz Baumann


Fuchsia-Flowered Gooseberry - Originally featured: April 2013
Last modified: April 13 2018 07:35:56.
References:
Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains, by Milt McAuley
Flowering Plants: The Santa Monica Mountains, Coastal and Chaparral Regions of Southern California, by Nancy Dale
Chumash Ethnobotany: Plant Knowledge Among the Chumash People.., by Jan Timbrook
Images Botanical Terms for Leaves