Page authors: Don Knoke, David Giblin
Ribes cereum
wax currant
Specimens
Photos

Distribution: Widespread east of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east to the Great Plains.

Habitat: Shrub-steppe and sagebrush desert to sub-alpine ridges.

Flowers: April-June

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Bumblebees, bees, hummingbirds

Description:
General:

Spreading to erect, unarmed shrub 0.5-1.5 m. tall, the new branches finely puberulent, turning grayish-brown or reddish-brown.

Leaves:

Leaves alternate, reniform to fan-shaped with a wedge-shaped base, 1.5-2.5 cm. broad, palmately 3- or 5-lobed much less than half their length, the lobes with rounded teeth.

Flowers:

Flowers 2-8 in short racemes on peduncles much shorter than the leaves, the entire inflorescence pubescent and glandular; pedicels shorter than the bracts; calyx tube cylindric, 6-8 mm. long, the 5 lobes deltoid-ovate, spreading; lobes and tube greenish-white to white or strongly pinkish-tinged, 1.5-3 mm. long; petals spatulate-obovate, 1-2 mm. long, half exserted; stamens 5, shorter than the petals; styles 2, fused nearly full length; ovary inferior, sparingly glandular.

Fruits:

Berry ovoid, 6-8 mm. long, dull or bright orange or red.

Accepted Name:
Ribes cereum Douglas
Publication: Trans. Hort. Soc. London. 7: 512. 1830.

Synonyms & Misapplications:
(none provided)
Infraspecies:
Additional Resources:

PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Ribes cereum in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database

WA Flora Checklist: Ribes cereum checklist entry

OregonFlora: Ribes cereum information

E-Flora BC: Ribes cereum atlas page

CalPhotos: Ribes cereum photos

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