It appears that in the early 1900s federal laws were passed, in order to ban all Ribes bushes in America, due to concern of them being a carrier for the blister rust disease, which was destroying certain types of white pines. In the following years, all currant and gooseberry bushes were being destroyed.
Several decades later, it was realized that the disease was hosted and spread primarily (or only) through the Ribes nigrum blackcurrant, which had been brought from Europe and widely planted. After the ban, the imported Ribes nigrum plants had been being modified in ways that were thought to be immune to the disease, but ended up being even more of a danger to the white pines.
The disease itself is also reported to have been imported from Asia, with young pine plants. Its a bit confusing and not much info can be found through the web. But, regardless of how it all happened the damages done, to our native current and gooseberry populations, must now be repaired. Some steps have been taken in this direction, but much more is needed...
In the 1960s the federal ban on all Ribes species was lifted and it was left up to the states to keep the bans or not. Maine's ban appears to now be primarily against only the imported Ribes nigrum and new cultivars that came from it, which is very understandable. Vermont has no ban on any Ribes plants at all. A 2017 report from the USDA stated that the current ban in New Hampshire is only on "cr-type Ribes plants," which is the European Ribes nigrum blackcurrants and new varieties that have been created from its genes, which is understandable. I do not know about the laws in other states.
According to a 2010 USDA report; our own native black currant - Ribes americanum, has now been found to be a very "low risk" for hosting the blister rust disease. It turns out that our own native Ribes took a huge and unfair beating, back when "all Ribes" were being blamed and destroyed. Poor things!
I am sure that the mistakes made were partly due to people believing inaccurate information and people not realizing how important these types of natural food sources were to us and other animals. Sometimes we make mistakes, but we can learn from them, and in this situation, it appears that the damage done to our native Ribes population can be repaired fairly quickly, because native Ribes are a hardy and fast growing species that can be easily propagated from both the berry seeds and branch cuttings. The trick is to make sure that we are re-planting only our own real native ones and not any of the others.
Today, several of the Northeastern states have some of our native Ribes plants listed as endangered species, which need to be protected and restored. It was through these reports that I finally found some of the authentic names of the truly native American varieties, many of which are also native to Canada. It appears that there had been no ban in Canada and so they surely have more of these than we now do. Perhaps they will help us restore our own.
List of endangered native Ribes plants in Connecticut
https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Endangered-Species/Endangered-Species-Listings/Endangered-Threatened--Special-Concern-Plants
Ribes glandulosum; Skunk currant
Ribes lacustre; Swamp black currant
Ribes rotundifolium; Wild currant
Ribes triste: Swamp red currant (The one I munched on when I was a little munchkin. :-)
List of endangered native Ribes plants in Massachusetts;
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/list-of-endangered-threatened-and-special-concern-species#plants
Ribes lacustre; Bristly Black Currant
List of endangered native Ribes plants in Maryland;
https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/rte_Plant_List.pdf
Ribes americanum; Wild Black Currant
Ribes cynosbati; Prickly Gooseberry
Ribes glandulosum; Skunk Currant
List of endangered native Ribes plants in Pennsylvania
https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/017/chapter45/chap45toc.html
Ribes missouriense; Missouri Gooseberry
List of endangered native Ribes plants in Delaware
https://documents.dnrec.delaware.gov/fw/conservation/RARE%20PLANTS%20OF%20DELAWARE%202018.pdf
Ribes americanum; wild black gooseberry
Ribes hirtellum; Northern gooseberry
I did not check every state, so there is probably a lot more. And I have not been able to find a listing of all of the Ribes plants that are truly native to North America. Its was not only a forbidden fruit, but was also forgotten by much of humanity here in the USA. And there is not much available information on it. I still suspect that this was part of the covert targeting of the USA, like I said in my previous post. (I also suspect that the destruction of most of our Black Walnut trees also was.) But, regardless, we can and should bring back our native current and gooseberry bushes, because they were, and still are, a valuable natural food that is need for our health and wellbeing, as well as that of the bear, deer and moose and birds...etc.
I think that one of the lessons we should all learn from this situation is that new manmade varieties of our native foods are not as good as the natural wild ones. New ones may produce more fruit...etc., but at what cost? If it were up to me, only the wild and native varieties would be grown, even commercially, because they are the only ones that have the perfect balance of nutrients that our bodies need. If I still owned my property I'd be planting native varieties of both currants and gooseberrys as well as other healthy native food producing trees and shrubs and plants. And I'd be eating the gifts they produce for me. What would you do if you could?
FYI; Raw native currants and gooseberrys are extremely nutritious. They are known to be a literal superfood, which can prevent viruses and heart problems and kidney problems and cancer and arthritis and urinary tract problems and many other illnesses, due to their very high content of vitamins C and A and K and potassium and phosphorus and calcium and antioxidants and iron...etc. And they remove toxins from the body. Surely people were a lot more healthy back when the native ones were a regular part of our diet. We need them back. We really do.
P.S. In bing searches on the web, the dangerous Ribes Nigrum is the one that comes up in searches for native currents in the USA. This is happening with many sites, as well as wikipedia. I found much more accurate info through google searches.
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