Currant and Gooseberry Fruiting Cycle

Ribes fruit cycle

The fruit buds of currants and gooseberries (the ribes genus) are similar enough to discuss together. The ­­fruit buds occur laterally on new shoots, and on spurs or spur like branching of older wood.  As new growth  occurs late in summer or fall, these fruit buds form. The buds have developed in the leaf axil, nearly complete by the end of the season, but still slowly advancing until about a week or so before budbreak. The following spring they open and expose the flower system. The currant develops into a raceme of multiple flowers, also known as a strig (particularly when it is bearing fruit. The gooseberry normally gives a single flower or a few emanating singly from the bud. The flowers in both are perfect, with inferior ovaries. Ribes buds are simple, that is they produce either leaves /shoots or flowers/fruit. Not both, thus the flowers emerging will not be accompanied by leaves as they are, for example, in apples.

Ribes species can be viewed here.