Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Rosales

Family: Grossulariaceae -- currant

Variety: The Palouse phase is var. cereum.

Common Name: wax currant

Species Code: RICE, RICEC2

Origin: Native to dry hillsides, rocky places, and talus slopes from shrub-steppe to open forest and mountain ridges of western North American from interior British Columbia and the northwestern US south to California and east to North Dakota and New Mexico.

Rare: the species as a whole is common but see comment on var. colubrinum below.

Form: shrub, deciduous, spreading to erect, unarmed, 0.5-1.5 meter tall; new branches often puberulent and stipitate-glandular; bark grayish to reddish brown.

Mature height: 2-5 feet

Duration: perennial

Longevity: medium lifespan

Habitat Type: forest, shrub thickets

Wetland Indicator Status: FAC

Leaves: alternate, commonly 3-5 lobed but sometimes rounded, orbicular to reniform or flabellate, glabrous to stipitate-glandular on both surfaces, mostly 1.5-2.5 cm wide, finely toothed.

Flowers: 2-8 borne on short peduncles; inflorescence usually finely pubescent and glandular; calyx greenish-white to white, sometimes tinged pink, the lobes deltoid to ovate, glabrous to pubescent and stipitate-glandular; petals 1-2 mm long, white to pink, flabellate to spatulate.

Flower color: white, pink

Bloom: May

Fruit: berry, ovoid, dull to bright red, 6-10 mm long, glabrous or sparsely glandular, unpalatable.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Most species of Ribes are rhizomatous and the seed is stored in the seed bank (Pfister & Sloan undated).
277,500 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2010).
201,000-283,000 seeds/lb (Pfister & Sloan undated).
201,000-375,000 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
2n=16 (Hitchcock et al 1969, University of British Columbia 2003, Baldwin et al 2004)
Apparently only diploids are known.
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a berry.
Berries are edible but generally considered bland. Native peoples used the plant medicinally.
Early hummingbirds use the flowers (Parish et al 1996). Used by deer (Taylor 1992). Fair to good forage for wildlife and the fruit is eaten by many birds (Stubbendieck et al 1997). Minor browse species for Rocky Mountain elk in summer (Kufeld 1973).
Seeds are dispersed by animals which eat the berries.
Wind pollination is common in the genus (Pfister & Sloan undated).
Ribes species are hosts for the larva of the zephyr angelwing (Polygonia zephyrus) butterfly (Pocewicz 2005).

Comments: Ribes cereum Dougl. var. colubrinum C.L. Hitchc. is a rare taxon which occurs only along the Snake River and tributaries in west central Idaho with small populations in Asotin County, Washington and Wallowa County, Oregon. It is ranked S1 in Washington (Washington State Department of Natural Resources 2009) and S3 in Oregon (Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center 2007) but is common enough in Idaho not to be ranked.

Sun requirement: full sun

Soil moisture: mesic

Precipitation: 13-35 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2010).

Fire: Killed by severe fire. Crown may survive low intensity fires. Re-colonizes from seed stored in seed bank (Crane & Fischer 1986).
Easily killed by fire. Will sprout weakly from the root crown after moderate intensity fire. Recolonizes from heat scarified seed following fire (Marshall 1995).

Hazards: Some of the Ribes species are alternate hosts for white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola). The fungus causes minimal damage to Ribes spp., but severe damage to white pine (Pinus monticola).

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: Extended cold moist stratification is required. Some additional seed will germinate with scarification.

Seed yield: medium

Seed harvest: difficult

Seed first harvest: 3 years (Marshall 1995).

Seed cleaning: medium difficulty

Planting duration: long

Seed shatter: low

Seed size: medium

Seed harvest date: no information available

Seed comments: Seed must be harvested before birds eat the fruit.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Keywords: native perennial upland shrub

Propagation:
5 protocols in the Native Plant Network
New Mexico State University
Los Lunas, New Mexico Plant Materials Center
Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Land, Lone Peak Nursery
Rocky Mountain National Park
Corvallis, Oregon Plant Materials Center

Other Propagation Information:
Seed requires 120-150 days cold moist stratification or fall sowing. Currants can also be propagated by hardwood cuttings (Pfister & Sloan undated).
Seeds require scarification (Marshall 1995).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 1/1/10 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Crane, M.F., and William C. Fischer. 1986. Fire Ecology of the Forest Habitat Types of Central Idaho. General Technical Report INT-218. Ogden, UT. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station. 86 p.

Francis, John K. (editor). 2004. Wildland Shrubs of the United States and Its Territories: Thamnic Descriptions: Volume 1. Gen. Tech. Report 11TF-GTR-26. USDA, Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and USDA, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO. 839 pp.

Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Department of Interior and US Department of Agriculture, NRCS. Denver, CO.

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

Marshall, K. Anna. 1995. Ribes cereum. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [accessed 2009, January 15].

Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center. 2007. Rare, Threatened and Endangered Species of Oregon. Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center, Oregon State University, Portland, Oregon. 100 pp. Available online at http://oregonstate.edu/ornhic/documents/2007_t&e_book.pdf

Parish, Roberta, Ray Coupe, and Dennis Lloyd. 1996. Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing. Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Pfister, Robert D., and John P. Sloan. undated. Ribes L. Currant, Gooseberry. In: Bonner, Franklin T., and Rebecca G. Nisley (eds.). Woody Plant Seed Manual. USDA Forest Service. Available online at http://www.nsl.fs.fed.us/wpsm/

Pocewicz, Amy. 2005. Host Plants of Palouse Butterfly Species. 2 page handout to accompany the April 2005 presentation to the Palouse Prairie Foundation.

Stubbendieck, James, Stephan L. Hatch, and Charles H. Butterfield. 1997. North American Range Plants. 5th edition. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE. 501 pp.

Taylor, Ronald J. 1992. Sagebrush Country. Mountain Press Publishing Co. Missoula, MT.

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Accessed 9/1/09 online at http://www.bcflora.org/

USDA NRCS. 2010. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 10 February 2010). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Washington Natural Heritage Program. 2009. List of Plants Tracked by the Washington Natural Heritage Program. Online at http://www1.dnr.wa.gov/nhp/refdesk/lists/plantrnk.html Accessed 2/15/10.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species account from the Fire Effects Information System
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium