8.
Ribes nigrum
Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 201. 1753.
Garden black currant, gadellier noir
Plants
1-2 m.
Stems
erect, glandular and puberulent or nearly glabrous; spines at nodes absent; prickles on internodes absent.
Leaves:
petiole 1-4 cm, pubescent, sometimes with longer setose hairs basally; blade reniform, 3-5-lobed, cleft nearly to midrib, 5-10 cm, base cordate, surfaces with shiny, resinous glands, lobes broadly ovate, margins irregularly serrate, apex acute.
Inflorescences
pendent, 4-10-flowered racemes, 3-5 cm, axis pubescent, flowers evenly spaced.
Pedicels
jointed, 2-10 mm, glabrous or finely pubescent to lanate; bracts ovate, 0.5-2 mm, pubescent.
Flowers:
hypanthium green, cup-shaped or short-campanulate, 3-4 mm, densely pubescent or tomentose; sepals not overlapping, reflexed, greenish or pinkish abaxially, suffused with purple adaxially, oblong, 5-7 mm; petals nearly connivent, erect, white to reddish, bluntly deltate, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 1.5-3 mm; nectary disc prominent, green or purplish, circular, covering ovary; stamens slightly longer than petals; filaments linear, 2-2.5 mm, glabrous with some glands; anthers white, sagittate, 1 mm, apex blunt; ovary pubescent, sessile-glandular; styles connate nearly to stigmas, 3 mm, very finely hairy.
Berries
sweet-tasting, black, globose, 12-15 mm, glabrous with some sessile glands.
Flowering May-Jun. Wet meadows, disturbed streamsides, anthropogenic habitats; 100-300 m; introduced; N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Conn., Ill., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., Ohio, Vt., Wis.; Eurasia.
Ribes nigrum
is the source of the cultivated black currant. It has a strong, unpleasant odor.
