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Ribes diacanthum Pall.

Modern name

Ribes diacanthum Pall.

A deciduous shrub 4 to 6 ft high, armed with spines in pairs 18 to 15 in. long, or sometimes unarmed; young shoots not downy. Leaves obovate or rounded, often three-lobed, the lobes coarsely toothed, 34 to 2 in. wide, the base ordinarily wedge-shaped but sometimes rounded, quite glabrous; stalk 14 to 58 in. long, more or less furnished with bristles. Flowers unisexual, the sexes on different plants. Males yellowish, in erect glandular racemes. Fruits roundish oval, about as big as a red currant, glabrous, scarlet-red.

Native of Siberia, Manchuria, etc.; introduced in 1781. This shrub, which has no particular merit, resembles R. alpinum in the plants being one-sexed, but differs in having prickles, and in the markedly wedge-shaped leaves. In spite of its prickles, it is undoubtedly a currant of the subgenus Berisia and does not resemble the gooseberries (subgenus Grossularia) in any other respect.


Genus

Ribes

Other species in the genus