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Ribes tenue Jancz.

Modern name

Ribes tenue Jancz.

A deciduous shrub up to 6 or 8 ft high of bushy habit and with slender unarmed, glabrous young shoots. Leaves broadly or roundish ovate in main outline, but deeply three- (sometimes five-) lobed as well as sharply and deeply toothed, each lobe pointed, the base cut straight across or slightly heart-shaped; 1 to 214 in. long, scarcely so much wide, sprinkled with appressed bristles; stalk slender, 13 to 1 in. long, reddish. Racemes of male flowers 112 to 2 in. long, female ones shorter. Flowers brownish red, main flower-stalk slightly glandular. Fruits globose, red, 14 in. wide.

Native of the Himalaya and W. China; introduced from the latter region by Wilson in 1900. It is closely related to our native R. alpinum, which differs in its greenish-yellow flowers. Beyond its neat habit and small handsomely cut leaves, it has no particular merit. It is one of the earliest of the currants to burst into leaf in spring and flowers in April.


Genus

Ribes

Other species in the genus