Ribes villosum Wall.

Not common. Found in the N.W. Himalayas from 3500-4000 m alt.

Shrub, l-2 m tall, very much branched and procumbent. Young bran¬ches glandular-villous and sticky, older ones glabrous. Leaves l-l.8 cm long, 2.5-3.2 cm broad, greyish, orbicular-reniform, base cordate-truncate, obscurely 3-5-lobed, lobes rounded, slightly dentate, hairy and resinous on both sides. Petioles 0.5-1 cm long, often longer than the lamina in the sterile shoots, but + shorter in the fertile shoots, densely viscous-villous in both cases. Racemes 1.5-3 cm long, the male ones many flowered and condensed; bracts and pedicels glandular hairy. Bracts 2-4 mm long; lanceolate, oblong, spath¬ulate, longer than the pedicels, deciduous. Calyx dark red, hairy, glandular towards the apex, tube 2 mm long, lobes 2 mm long, broadly lanceolate or ovate, acute. In male flowers the pedicels scarcely exceeding the bracts, but in the female flowers often shorter than the bracts. Petals very small, 1 mm long, suborbicular, slightly acute. Style bifid at the apex. Berries orange-red in colour, 1.5 cm in diameter, glandulose to puberulous.

Distribution: Pamir-Alai mountains, Afghanistan, W. Pakistan.

Fl. Per: June.