[5][4] It is native to Canada and the northern United States.

[3][6] Cultivated gooseberries are derived from this species and from Ribes uva-crispa.

[8] Ribes hirtellum grows in a variety of habitats, including wetlands such as fens, sedge meadows, riverbottom forests, and swamps, shorelines of streams and lakes, and rocky openings in forests and along cliffs.

It grows throughout much of eastern north America, from Alberta to Nova Scotia in Canada, south to West Virginia, and west to Nebraska in the United States.

[3][5][6] Whereas Ribes uva-crispa crops have been devastated by American gooseberry mildew, Podosphaera mors-uvae, which was accidentally introduced to Europe, Ribes hirtellum is resistant.