Siberian Currant

Shrubs dioecious, 1-2(-3) m tall. Branchlets slightly angled, glabrous; nodal spines 2, 3-5 mm; internodes unarmed or with sparse, slender prickles. Buds brownish, ovoid, 3-5 mm, glabrous, apex acute. Petiole 1-2 cm, glabrous, rarely sparsely puberulent; leaf blade obovate to rhombic-obovate, 1.5-3.5 × 1-3 cm, glabrous, base cuneate; lobes 3, margin deeply serrate, apex obtuse or acute. Male racemes nodding, 3-6 cm, 10-20-flowered, female ones 1-2.5 cm, 10-15-flowered; rachis and pedicels sparsely shortly glandular hairy; bracts lanceolate to ligulate, 4-6 mm, glabrous, 1-veined. Pedicel 2-4 mm. Calyx yellowish green, glabrous; tube rotate to saucer-shaped, 1-1.5 mm; lobes erect, ovate, rarely elliptic, 1.5-2 mm. Petals cuneate-orbicular, 0.5-1 mm. Stamens subequaling petals. Ovary subglobose, glabrous. Style 2-lobed at apex. Fruit red to reddish black, globose to ovoid-globose, 0.5-0.9 cm in diam., glabrous. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Aug-Sep.

N Heilongjiang (Da Hinggan Ling), E Jilin, Nei Mongol [N Korea, NE Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].

Sandy hilly areas, sandy grasslands, river banks; below 1500 m.

Ribes diacanthum, the Siberian currant, is an Asian species of currant. It is native to northeastern Asia (Russia, Mongolia, Korea, northeastern China (Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia)). The species is also sparingly naturalised in the Canadian Province of Manitoba, having escaped in the 1940s from an agricultural experiment station near Brandon.

Ribes diacanthum is a shrub up to 2 meters (80 in) tall, dioecious (with male and female flowers on different plants). Flowers are yellow-green. Fruits are red, spherical, and reportedly good-tasting.