Ribes rubrum L.
red currant
Unarmed, deciduous, scarcely aromatic shrub usually 0.5-1.5 m high; branches and shoots erect, slightly hairy when young. Lvs plicately folded in bud, with petioles to c. 8 cm long, slightly clasping at base; lamina broadly deltoid, 6-11 × 8-13 cm, often smaller on upper part of flowering stems, deeply palmately lobed, with 3-5 coarsely toothed, deltoid lobes, glabrate, dull and slightly rugose above, slightly to moderately hairy beneath, especially on veins; glands 0; base cordate or subcordate. Racemes pendent, usually 10-20-flowered; fls not fragrant. Hypanthium c. 1 mm diam., broadly campanulate, green, glabrous. Sepals c. 2-2.5 mm long, broadly obcuneate, green, reflexed at anthesis. Petals 0.5-0.7 mm long, ± rectangular and slightly obovate, green. Filaments c. 0.5 mm long. Fr. 5-10 mm diam., globose, red and shining, occasionally white, translucent, glabrous; flesh sweet.
S.: Canterbury (Acheron Homestead near the Clarence R., Mt Cook, near Hororata, Thomas R.), C. Otago (Lake Wakatipu).
W. Europe 1922
Roadsides, margins of subalpine scrub, near rivers and lakes in scrub.
FL Sep-Nov-(Dec) FT Dec-Feb.
Red currants are commonly cultivated in N.Z. although they are not as abundant or important as black currants. However, they are more likely to occur wild than are black currants. White currants are occasionally grown and represent 1 or more cvs of R. rubrum; they differ from red-fruited cvs only in the fr. colour. White currants are wild near Mt Cook, Canterbury, and Lake Wakatipu in C. Otago. Red currants are sometimes referred to R. sativum (Reichb.) Berger or R. vulgare Lam. but these names are usually treated as synonyms of R. rubrum now.