Ribes odoratum H.L.Wendl.
buffalo currant
Unarmed, deciduous, non-aromatic shrub 1.5-2-(3) m high; branches and shoots erect, densely puberulent or tomentulose. Lvs convolute in bud, with petioles 2-4 cm long, not clasping at base; lamina deltoid to subreniform, 2-6.5 × 2-8 cm, shining, often smaller on upper part of flowering stems, deeply palmately lobed, with 3 ± parallel-sided lobes, often with secondary lobes or rounded teeth, glabrous except for glandular scales when very young; margins ciliolate; base cordate. Racemes pendent, usually 7-15-flowered; fls fragrant. Hypanthium 8-12 mm long, cylindric, yellow or greenish yellow, glabrous. Sepals 5.5-9 mm long, elliptic or elliptic-obovate, yellow, glabrous, ± patent at early anthesis but soon reflexing. Petals 3-4 mm long, elliptic to obovate, cream, pale pink, rose or crimson. Filaments 1-3 mm long. Fr. 5-8 mm diam., globose, yellowish brown and shining, translucent and lacking bloom, glabrous; flesh not aromatic, insipid to taste.
S.: Canterbury (Ashburton), coastal areas in N. Otago, C. Otago.
N. America 1875
Forest and scrub margins, waste and open places, usually around settlements.
FL Oct-Dec FT Jan-Mar.
Buffalo currant is cultivated in colder and drier parts of N.Z., being valued for its distinctive, fragrant yellow fls and bright crimson-red lvs in autumn. It is sometimes mistaken for a young hawthorn in the vegetative state because of its similarly lobed lvs, but these are softer and paler green and in addition plants of R. odoratum lack spines. It was first recorded in N.Z. as Berberis vulgaris! Like R. nigrum, plants of R. odoratum sucker.
R. odoratum has been confused here and elsewhere with the very closely related R. aureum Pursh, but the latter has smaller fls and frs. R. odoratum is sometimes called clove currant in N.Z. The frs of R. odoratum are usually black or nearly so in N. America. The few seen in N.Z. were on cultivated plants and were yellowish brown, thus corresponding to f. xanthocarpum Rehder. Whether or not wild plants here usually or sometimes have black frs is unknown.
