northern gooseberry (Ribes hirtellum) vs canadian gooseberry (Ribes oxyacanthoides). both are about the same size, the canadian seem to ripen sooner. quite similar fruit,and the leaves on the plants are similar, the largest difference between these two native berry bushes is the northern is a more upright plant with mostly smooth stems with just a few spines, while the other is lower and sprawling and also the spikiest plant in our collection, really the thorns on them are very distinctive and densely packed. I'll take a follow up post about each in more detail, but I thought it would be interesting just to side by side the fruit as it was picked today (july 20) and compare. both bushes are three years old, still small and yet productive for fruit set, as much as any cultivar bushes we grow, the fruit are smaller but it so much cooler than these are wild native species

northern gooseberry, or smooth gooseberry. Ribes hirtellum. a native berry bush with almost no thornes, shown fruiting on july 20 and just starting to naturally drop some fruit, a good sign that they're at the right stage to pick. I have a few of these growing at the nursery grown from cuttings collected around MB and SK.