Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Rosales

Family: Grossulariaceae -- currant

Common Name: sticky currant

Species Code: RIVI3

Origin: Native to moist, open areas and dry to moist forests of western North America.

Rare: no

Form: shrub, deciduous, erect to spreading, 1-2 meters tall, glabrous to more often soft-pubescent and stipitate glandular, unarmed; bark reddish-brown.

Mature height: 40-80 inches

Duration: perennial

Longevity: moderate lifespan

Habitat Type: shrub thickets, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: FAC

Leaves: alternate, petiolate; blades mostly 3-6 cm wide, gray-green, variable but usually glandular, cordate, 3-5 lobed; lobes rounded, once or twice coarsely toothed.

Flowers: generally 4-16 borne in a erect or drooping raceme; pedicels copiously pubescent and stipitate-glandular; calyx green to yellowish green, glabrous, sepals 6-7 mm long; petals ovate, clawed, white or cream, 2.5-4 mm long; hypanthium tubular to campanulate.

Flower color: white

Bloom: May, June

Bloom starts on: mid May

Fruit: berry, ovoid, 10-12 mm long, blue-black, glabrous, stipitate-glandular or sometimes glaucous, disagreeably odiferous and distasteful.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Most species of Ribes are rhizomatous and the seed is stored in the seed bank (Pfister & Sloan undated).
255,000-344,000 seeds/lb (Pfister & Sloan undated).
200,000 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2010).
Average 298,000 with a range of 255,000-349,000 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
n=8 (University of British Columbia 2003).
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a berry.
Fruits are generally considered inedible. They have a disagreeable taste and may cause vomiting.
Wildlife browse the plants (Craighead et al 1963). Important browse for Rocky Mountain elk in summer and fall (Kufeld 1973).
Wind pollination is common in the genus (Pfister & Sloan undated).
Ribes species are hosts for the larva of the zephyr angelwing (Polygonia zephyrus) butterflies (Pocewicz 2005).

Sun requirement: full sun to partial shade

Soil moisture: mesic

Precipitation: 14-86 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2010).

Fire: Pioneers disturbed sites readily. Resistant to moderate fire. Regenerates from seeds and rhizomes (Patterson et al 1985).

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

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: extended cold moist stratification

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: difficult

Seed first harvest: no information available

Seed cleaning: medium difficulty

Planting duration: long

Seed shatter: low

Seed size: medium

Seed harvest date: no information available

Seed comments: Fruit must be collected before it is eaten by birds.

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

Keywords: native perennial upland shrub

Propagation:
1 protocol in the Native Plant Network
cuttings, Lockford California PMC
Other Propagation Information:
Seed requires 140 days of cold moist stratification or fall sowing. Currants can also be propagated by hardwood cuttings (Pfister & Sloan undated).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

References:
Craighead, John J., Frank C. Craighead, and Ray J. Davis. 1963. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA.

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.

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

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.

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, 12 February 2010). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium