A deciduous unarmed shrub up to 10 ft high, of bushy rounded shape; young shoots slender, arching, downy and furnished with stalked glands. Leaves three- or sometimes five-lobed, doubly toothed, heart-shaped at the base, 11⁄2 to 2 in. long and wide, dark dull green above and sprinkled with appressed bristles, downy beneath and furnished there with stalked glands, especially on the veins, margins glandular; stalk 3⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. long, glandular. Flowers nearly 1⁄2 in. long, borne six to twelve together during April in nodding, stalked racemes about 2 in. long; greenish, downy outside, bell-shaped; ovary glabrous; main and secondary flower-stalks glandular and downy. Fruits globose, black, shining, as large as a red currant.
Native of Mexico. It is one of the currant section of the genus and is quite hardy at Kew, where it has attained 9 ft by 12 ft. It flowers freely every year. The stalked glands are black and shining.