Black currant

Description

Ribes laxiflorum is a spreading, trailing shrub usually growing one half to one meter (20–40 inches) in height. It has been known to take a somewhat vine-like form in appropriate shady habitat with nearby supports, climbing to seven meters (23 feet) in length. It has fuzzy, glandular stems lacking spines and prickles. The hairy, glandular, maple-shaped leaves are up to 10 centimeters long and deeply divided into several pointed lobes lined with dull teeth. The inflorescence is a mostly erect raceme of up to eight flowers. The distinctive flower has five greenish, purplish, or red sepals which are often curved back at the tips. At the center is a corolla of five red or pink petals each measuring a millimeter long, narrow at the base and wider or club-shaped at the tip. Inside the corolla are five red stamens tipped with whitish anthers. The fruit is a purple-black berry measuring four to fourteen millimeters wide which is waxy, hairy, or bristly in texture