BWSR Featured Plant Name: Wild Black Currant (Ribes Americanum) Plant Family: Gooseberry (Grossulariaceae)

2020 April Plant of the Month

BWSR Featured Plant Name: Wild black currant (Ribes americanum) Plant family: Gooseberry (Grossulariaceae)

From left: Wild black currants' stems are reddish-brown and smooth with light ridges or wings. Courtesy Photo Currant flowers are a high-priority food source for the endangered rusty patched bumblebee. This is wild black currant, Ribes americanum. Photo Credit: Peter Dzuik, Minnesota Wildflowers Mature fruits are blue-black by late summer. Photo Credit: Peter Dzuik, Minnesota Wildflowers Yellow resin glands dot new stems and both leaf surfaces. Glands are usually more numerous on the lower surface of leaf blades. Courtesy Photo

Wild black currant, AKA American black currant, is a common Range Minnesota shrub of moist to wet habitats. It is a source of food and cover for many animals, including Minnesota’s state bee, the federally endangered rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis).

Identification yellow resin glands dot Plant Stats both leaf surfaces but Wild black currants are more numerous have multiple STATEWIDE WETLAND INDICATOR STATUS: below. Petioles (leaf ascending, arching FACW (Midwest) stalks) are hairy. Cream or trailing stems 3 to yellow-green flowers to 6 feet long. They PRIMARY USES: Food bloom from early May are smooth, but new and cover for wildlife; pollen and nectar for into June in a drooping growth is hairy and pollinators older growth may cluster of six to 15. Map source: USDA's Natural Resources be ridged or winged. Fruits are smooth, up Conservation Service Plants Database Leaves are alternate and sharply toothed, to a half-inch long, and Common throughout Minnesota, (attached singly to the growing 3 to 4 inches blue-black when ripe in wild black currants grow in a variety stem), palmately lobed long and wide. Small July or August. of soil types but prefer moist or wet conditions. Their habitats include streambanks, swamps, wet meadows, lakeshores and woodland edges.

www.bwsr.state.mn.us 1 Planting Recommendations Choose a moist or wet location in disease rarely kills Ribes species, full or partial sun. Plant bareroot but it is deadly to white pine and seedlings in spring, and potted other five-needled pines. Wild shrubs from spring through early black currants have a lower risk of summer. Space the plants 5 to 6 infection, but see these University feet apart to improve air circulation of Minnesota Extension tips to and reduce risk of fungal diseases. prevent or manage white pine Fruiting begins when the plants blister rust. are 3 years old. Arching stems may Many of the disease-resistant root at their tips, eventually forming currants available at nurseries thickets. Wild black currants can are cultivars of European black be aggressive in disturbed areas currants (Ribes nigrum) and red with little competition. In diverse, currants (Ribes rubrum). Native native communities, they occur as currants are preferred for greater scattered individuals and in small pollinator benefit, but they are colonies. uncommon commercially. See the Currants and related gooseberries Minnesota Department of Natural are intermediate hosts of white Resources’ list of native plant Leaves are alternate with three to five palmate lobes. Leaf pine blister rust. This fungal suppliers. margins are sharply toothed. Courtesy Photo

Similar Species Uses Northern black but the glands are Small mammals currants, Ribes found only on the and birds use wild hudsonianum, are lower leaf surface. black currants for found primarily in Unlike wild black food and cover. conifer swamps in currants, the leaves The flowers attract the northern third of of northern black many pollinators. the state. Like wild currants have an Like other currants, black currants, they unpleasant odor. they are a good have smooth stems Their flower clusters source of pollen and and leaves with Flower clusters of northern black currants are upright. are upright rather nectar for the rusty yellow resin glands, Photo Credit: Peter Dzuik, Minnesota Wildflowers than drooping. patched bumblebee. The edible berries are said to be high References in vitamins and https://ag.umass.edu/landscape/fact-sheets/white-pine-blister-rust-ribes-species antioxidants Chadde, Steve W. 2012. Wetland Plants of Minnesota, Second Edition. A Bogman Guide. Smith, Welby R. 2008. Trees and Shrubs of Minnesota. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wetland/plants/wb_currant.htm https://bwsr.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/2019-08/Native%20Plant%20Selection.pdf MinnesotaWildflowers.info https://extension.umn.edu/plant-diseases/white-pine-blister-rust http://plants.usda.gov https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_riam2.pdf https://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/insects/rpbb/plants.html

Developed by Susan Nelson