Red-flowering Currant (Edible Plants on UC Berkeley Campus)

Red-flowering Currant

Ribes sanguineum

Description ⁴

Red-flowering currant (family: Grossulariaceae) produces numerous small flowering spurs on multiple thornless stems. It grows at a moderate rate up to 10 ft. and develops an upright to spreading form. Deciduous, alternate leaves are 1-3 in. and rounded with 3-5 shallow lobes and deep veins lending a wrinkled appearance. They are green above and dull green beneath due to fine hairs and turn yellow to reddish in mid to late summer. Leaves of some plants are pungent when crushed. Numerous 2-6 in. long, nodding clusters of5-25 flowers appear in March to June. The flowers are composed of pink to deep red (rarely white) tubular fused sepals and small protruding red or white flower petals. Blue-black berries smaller than 0.5 in. have a thin white waxy coating, hold about 20 seeds each, and mature in early to mid summer. Thin orange or red tinted bark turns gray-brown and peels from older stems.

Uses ⁵

Red-flowering currant is a drought tolerant deciduous shrub that may be useful in restoration plantings. It provides early spring nectar for hummingbirds and butterflies, forage for the larvae of more than two dozen species of moths and butterflies, and nesting sites or cover for songbirds and small mammals. Numerous birds including grouse, quail, robins, finches, towhees, and woodpeckers, and small mammals consume the berries. Red-flowering currant provides occasional browse for game animals and modest forage value for sheep and cattle. Abundant showy flowers make this plant attractive as a landscape specimen or informal hedge and more than a dozen selections and hybrids are featured in the ornamental trade. Berries, although very tart, are considered suitable by some for jam, jelly, pie, juice or syrup. Native Americans ate the berries fresh or dried. This species has been investigated for medicinal anti bacterial and anti viral properties and is used in currant fruit breeding programs to confer resistance to anthracnose, powdery mildew and currant stem borer.

Edible ⁶

In the Native American people's history, there is no distinction among the various currants but the berries from these trees have always been consumed raw or dried. The fruits have short hairs on the surface to dissuade the bugs and are covered with silvery "bloom" that if rubbed off, will reveal a blue skin. The fruit is not known for being tasty but nonetheless perfectly safe for consumption.

Sources and Credits

(c) Minette Layne, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.flickr.com/photos/7232133@N08/3449868409
(c) Hindrik Sijens, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/hindrik/3462602047/
(c) Sound Native Plants, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/soundnativeplants/2657682440/
(c) USDA NRCS Plant Materials Center, Corvallis, Oregon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/1393165
(c) USDA NRCS Plant Materials Center, Corvallis, Oregon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/1393163
(c) jihyunan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

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