Manyflower Currant

Shrubs to 2 m tall. Branchlets robust, pubescent when young, unarmed. Buds purplish black or purplish brown, ovoid to oblong-ovoid, 7-9 mm, pubescent, apex acute. Petiole 3-5(-8) cm, pubescent, sometimes plumose hairy near base; leaf blade suborbicular, 5-10 cm, pubescent, more densely so abaxially, base truncate to shallowly cordate; lobes 3-5, broadly triangular, margin coarsely crenate-dentate, usually with some double teeth, apex obtuse or acute. Racemes erect then pendent, dense, 5-8(-12) cm, up to 50-flowered; rachis and pedicels pubescent; bracts ovate-orbicular, 1-2 mm, puberulent. Flowers bisexual, 5-6 mm in diam.; pedicel 2-4 mm. Calyx yellowish green, glabrous; tube pelviform to shallowly cupular, 1-1.5 mm, with 5 warts adaxially at base connected by a raised ring; lobes reflexed after anthesis, ligulate to obovate-ligulate, 1.5-2.5 mm. Petals reflexed, subspatulate to obovate, 1-1.5 mm. Stamens longer than petals. Ovary glabrous. Style subequaling stamens, 2-lobed for almost 1/2 its length. Fruit dark red, subglobose, 0.7-0.9 cm, glabrous. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Jul.

Widely introduced and escaped in N China (precise distribution unknown) [native to SE Europe].

Ribes vitifolium Host.