The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

coast black gooseberry, straggly gooseberry

blood currant, red currant, red flowering currant

Habit Erect to spreading shrub 1.5-3 m. tall, pubescent throughout, the branches arching, with gray to brownish bark, and 1-3 stout, chestnut-colored spines at the nodes. Erect, unarmed shrub 1-3 m. tall, with reddish-brown bark.
Leaves

Leaves alternate, palmately veined, broadly ovate, 2-6 cm. wide, rounded to cordate at the base, with rounded serrations, tri-lobed over half their length, the lower sections often shallowly cleft into 2 lobes.

Leaves alternate, petiolate, broadly reniform to deltoid-ovate, 2.5-6 cm. broad, the lower surface much paler and hairier than the upper, palmately 5-lobed, the lobes deltoid to rounded and finely denticulate.

Flowers

Inflorescence of 2- to 3-flowered, drooping, slender racemes, shorter than the leaves;

pedicels slender, 5-10 mm. long;

calyx red to reddish-green, glabrous to pubescent, the calyx tube conic, 2.5 mm. long, the 5 lobes narrowly oblong, 5-7 mm. long, recurved;

petals 5, white to red, obovate, 1.5-2.5 mm. long;

stamens 5, longer than the calyx lobes;

styles 2, fused half their length, the fused half villous;

ovary inferior.

Inflorescence of erect, 10- to 20-flowered racemes;

pedicels jointed;

calyx pale to deep rose, finely pubescent;

calyx tube 3-5 mm. long and nearly a broad, the 5 lobes oblong, equal to the tube, spreading;

petals 5, white to light rose, obovate-spatulate, entire, 2.5-3.5 mm. long;

stamens 5, equaling the petals, the filaments pinkish;

styles 2, glabrous, fused almost to the stigmas;

ovary inferior.

Fruits

Berry globose, smooth, purplish-black, about 1 cm. long.

Berry globose, 7-9 mm. long, glaucous-black.

Ribes divaricatum

Ribes sanguineum

Flowering time April-May February-June
Habitat Moist hillsides, prairies and open woods at low elevations. Open to wooded, moist to dry valleys and lower mountains.
Distribution
Occurring chiefly west of the Cascades crest and along the Columbia River Gorge in Washington; British Columbia to California.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Occurring chiefly west of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Origin Native Native
Conservation status Not of concern Not of concern
Sibling taxa
R. acerifolium, R. aureum, R. bracteosum, R. cereum, R. hudsonianum, R. inerme, R. lacustre, R. laxiflorum, R. lobbii, R. montigenum, R. nigrum, R. niveum, R. oxyacanthoides, R. rubrum, R. sanguineum, R. triste, R. velutinum, R. viscosissimum, R. watsonianum, R. wolfii
R. acerifolium, R. aureum, R. bracteosum, R. cereum, R. divaricatum, R. hudsonianum, R. inerme, R. lacustre, R. laxiflorum, R. lobbii, R. montigenum, R. nigrum, R. niveum, R. oxyacanthoides, R. rubrum, R. triste, R. velutinum, R. viscosissimum, R. watsonianum, R. wolfii
Subordinate taxa
R. divaricatum var. divaricatum
R. sanguineum var. sanguineum
Web links