Flowering currant

Description

Ribes sanguineum, the flowering currant, redflower currant, red-flowering currant, or red currant is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Grossulariaceae, native to the western United States and Canada. It is a deciduous shrub growing to 3 m (10 ft) tall and broad. It is naturally multi-stemmed with an upright-arching to rounded habit, although it can be grown in tree form. The bark is dark brownish-grey with prominent paler brown lenticels. The leaves are of alternate arrangement, simple, 2–7 cm (1–3 in) long and broad, palmately lobed with five lobes. When young in spring, they have a strong resinous scent. The flowers are produced in early spring at the same time as the leaves emerge, on dangling racemes 3–7 cm (1–3 in) long of 5–30 flowers; each flower is 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 in) in diameter, with five red or pink petals. The fruit is a dark purple oval berry about 1 cm (0.5 in) long, edible but with an insipid taste. The Latin specific epithet sanguineum means “blood-red”. Ribes is a genus of about 200 known species of flowering plants, most of them native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The various species are known as currants or gooseberries, and some are cultivated for their edible fruit or as ornamental plants. Ribes is the only genus in the family Grossulariaceae. Ribes species are medium shrublike plants with marked diversity in strikingly diverse flowers and fruit. They have either palmately lobed or compound leaves, and some have thorns. The sepals of the flowers are larger than the petals, and fuse into a tube or saucer shape. The ovary is inferior, maturing into a berry with many seeds. Ribes is the single genus in the Saxifragales family Grossulariaceae. Although once included in the broader circumscription of Saxifragaceae sensu lato, it is now positioned as a sister group to Saxifragaceae sensu stricto. Ribes is widely distributed through the Northern Hemisphere, and also extending south in the mountainous areas of South America. Species can be found in meadows or near streams. The genus Ribes includes the edible currants: blackcurrant, redcurrant and white currant, as well as the European gooseberry Ribes uva-crispa and several hybrid varieties. It should not be confused with the dried currants used in cakes and puddings, which are from the Zante currant, a small-fruited cultivar of the grape Vitis vinifera. Ribes gives its name to the popular blackcurrant cordial Ribena.