Ribes americanum

Native

Moist. Upland woods, floodplains.

Late April to early June

Yellowish white

40″ to 60″

This is an 40″ to 60″ tall, erect, perennial shrub that sometimes forms thickets.

The stems are erect or ascending, slender, and ridged. They do not have spines or bristles. Young stems are finely hairy with yellow glands. Older stems are gray and hairless.

The buds are brown, hairy, egg-shaped, ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″ long, with a blunt tip.

The leaves are alternate, stalked, 1″ to 2⅜″ long, and 1⅛″ to 3⅛″ wide. They are broadly egg-shaped in outline with a flat or shallowly heart-shaped base. They are palmately lobed, with 3 or 5 pointed lobes, and palmately veined. The upper surface is dark green, hairless, with scattered yellow glands. The lower surface is paler green, hairy along the veins, with many yellow glands. The margins are deeply toothed or double-toothed.

The inflorescences are in elongated, unbranched, clusters (racemes) of 8 to 20 or more flowers. The racemes are 2″ to 3⅛″ long and drooping, with a hairy central axis. There are 2 conspicuous bracts at the base of the raceme. The bracts are lance-shaped, hairy, and much longer than the flower stalks.

The flowers are yellowish-white, about ⅜″ long, and bell-shaped. There are 5 petal-like sepals fused together at the base into a short tube, with 5 lobes that spread widely and bend backward at the tip. They are sparsely hairy on the outside and have no yellow glands. There are 5 blunt-tipped petals that are shorter than the sepals and are pressed together forming a tube. There are usually 5, sometimes 4 stamens, that are shorter than the petals and do not protrude from the tube. The ovary is hairless and has no bristles, prickles, or yellow glands. The style is as long as or slightly longer than the stamens.

The fruit is a black, juicy berry. It is almost round, 5 ⁄16″ to ⅜″ in diameter, hairless, and has no bristles or prickles.

European black currant (Ribes nigrum) has flowers on stalks that are much longer than the minute, subtending bracts. The sepals are densely hairy on the outside. The sepals and ovary have scattered, yellow glands.

Northern black currant (Ribes hudsonianum) racemes are erect or ascending. The flowers are on stalks that are much longer than the minute, subtending bracts. The sepals are densely hairy on the outside.