Black Currant

• Name also

  European blackcurrant

• Growing form and height

  Shrub. 1–1.5 m (3–5 ft.).

• Flower

  Inconspicuous, regular (actinomorphic), approx. 8 mm (0.3 in.) across, reddish- or brownish green. Calyx five-lobed, wheel-shaped, hairy, with yellow glands, and longer than the petals. Stamens 5. Carpels 2, fused. Inflorescence a slender, drooping raceme.

• Leaves

  Alternate. With fairly long stalks, strong-scented. Blade with palmate venation, 3–5-lobed, with cordate base, toothed margins, hairless upper surface, and hairy underside covered with yellowish glands.

• Buds

  Egg-shaped–round, rather big, greenish. In short shoots buds in bunches.

• Fruit

  Black, fleshy berry.

• Habitat

  Mixed wooded swamps, streamside thickets, riverbanks, seaside thickets and scrub. Sometimes an escape.

• Flowering time

  May–June.

The genus Ribes comprises some 150 species native in the Northern hemisphere or in the mountains of South America. In general they are monoecious shrubs, with only a few exceptions.

Black currant is native in Finland. Originally it was a species of flooded land which is adapted to varying, sometimes quite wet conditions. When not in fruit, black currant is best distinguished from red currants by the strong smell of its leaves. Several cultivars which produce more berries than the native forms are in cultivation. Besides berries also leaves are used, e.g. for making tea, as medicine, or as seasoning.