Gooseberry most often refers to cultivated plants from two species of the genus Ribes:

• Ribes uva-crispa native to Europe, northwestern Africa and southwestern Asia.
• Ribes hirtellum, American gooseberry
• Hybrids between Ribes hirtellum and Ribes uva-crispa, including most of the modern gooseberry cultivars

The common name is also used for the following botanical groups.

Ribes

Gooseberries may be used to describe the genus Ribes as a whole, or particular wild species of Ribes contrasted with currants, including:

• 
  Missouri gooseberry, Ribes missouriense
• 
  Santa Cruz Island gooseberry, Ribes thacherianum

Plants unrelated to Ribes

Gooseberries may also be used to describe tropical plants producing fruit superficially similar to Ribes fruit. This includes:

• Byrsonima lucida, the "Long Key" gooseberry, native to the Caribbean
• Ceylon gooseberry, a species of Dovyalis, native to Sri Lanka and southern India
• Chinese gooseberry or kiwifruit, the edible berry of a cultivar group of the woody vine Actinidia deliciosa and hybrids between deliciosa and other Actinidia species
• Curio herreanus, a succulent native to South America that superficially resembles gooseberry
• Pereskia aculeata, the Barbados gooseberry, an unusual cactus
• Within family Phyllanthaceae:
  • Phyllanthus emblica, the Indian gooseberry or emblic
  • Jamaican gooseberry tree, an herb-like plant
  • The "Star gooseberry", meaning either:
    • Phyllanthus acidus, the "Otaheite gooseberry", the only Phyllanthoideae with edible fruit, or
    • Sauropus androgynus, a shrub grown in some tropical regions as a leaf vegetable
• Within family Solanaceae:
  • Physalis angulata, also called balloon or cutleaf groundcherry
  • Physalis peruviana, Cape gooseberry, indigenous to South America and South Africa
• Withania somnifera, Poison gooseberry