Ribes glaciale Wall.

An erect shrub, 3-5 m tall. Young branches sparsely hairy, older ones glabrous. Leaves 2-8 cm long, 2-6 cm broad, cordate, 3-5 lobed, crenateserrate, lobes often elongated, acute or acuminate, basal nerves 3; petiole 0.5-3.5 cm long, glandular hairy. Racemes c. 5 cm long, polygamo-dio¬ecious. Male racemes l.5-4.5 cm long, 7-30-flowered; female ones 0.5-2 cm long, few flowered. Bracts 2-5 mm long, exceeding the pedicels, glandular and ciliate. Male flowers dark greenish. Calyx tube 2 mm long, somewhat obconical, glabrous or slightly pubescent, lobes c. 2 mm long, lanceolate-ovate, obtuse. Petals purple, minute, clawed, much shorter than the sepals. Stamens scarcely exceeding the petals. Female flowers purple or dark brown, smaller. Style bifid. Berries deep red or scarlet red, 5 mm in diameter.

Shrubs dioecious, 2-3(-5) m tall. Branchlets glabrous or slightly pubescent, unarmed. Buds brownish red, oblong, 4-7 mm, apex acute; scales herbaceous, glabrous. Petiole pinkish, 1-2 cm, glabrous or sparsely stalked glandular; leaf blade narrowly ovate, rarely suborbicular, 3-5 × 2-4 cm, abaxially puberulent along veins, adaxially glabrous or sparsely glandular hairy, base rounded to subtruncate; lobes 3-5, margin coarsely serrate, sometimes with some double teeth; terminal lobe narrowly triangular-ovate, 3-4 × as long as ovate lateral ones, apex acuminate. Male racemes 2-5 cm, 10-30-flowered, female ones 1-3 cm, 4-10-flowered; rachis and pedicels pubescent, shortly stalked glandular; bracts ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 3-5 mm, 1-veined, margin ciliate. Pedicel 2-4 mm. Calyx brownish red, glabrous; tube shallowly cupular, 1-2 mm; lobes erect, ovate to ligulate, 1-2.5 mm. Petals subflabellate to cuneate-spatulate, not equaling calyx lobes. Stamens equaling or longer than petals. Ovary obovoid-oblong, glabrous, rarely sparsely glandular hairy. Style 2-lobed at apex. Fruit red, sour tasting, subglobose to obovoid-globose, 0.5-0.7 cm in diam., glabrous. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

Himalaya (Kashmir to Bhutan), S. Tibet, W. China.

Distribution: S. China, Tibet, Himalayas and Afghanistan.

SE Gansu, Henan, W Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Kashmir, N Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

2600-4400 m

Fl.Per.: June-Aug.

Forests and thickets in mountain valleys, mountain slopes, rocks; 1900-3000 m.