The names "Currant" and "Gooseberry" are used interchangeably for various members of the Ribes genus, but no distinguishing characteristics help separate Currants from Gooseberries; what one person calls a Currant, another calls a Gooseberry.  Common names often lump different species of plants together. (Read about plant names.)

     The name "Ribes" is of disputed meaning: one version states that "Ribes" comes from the Danish "ribs", a name for red currants.  Another version is that "Ribes" is from the Arabic name for similar plants.  We do know that Linnaeus named this genus in 1753.

   To white flowering Ribes.  To yellow flowering Ribes.

Ribes montigenum (Currant)
Grossulariaceae (Gooseberry Family)

Montane, subalpine. Woodlands, streamsides. Spring, summer.
Lizard Head Trail, June 9, 2006.
Lizard Head Trail, June 17, 2005.

Our most common Ribes species and most prolific and reliable fruit producer is Ribes montigenum.  It has flesh-colored stems for the most recent year or two of growth, three large thorns at leaf nodes, and sometimes has smaller spines along the stem.  Leaves are densely hairy, somewhat sticky, lobed, and cleft very deeply in three divisions.  Hundreds of delicate, pink-to-coral flared bells cloak the plant in late spring and early summer.  Pedicels and calyxes are also covered in minute, glandular, sticky hairs.  

"Montigenum" is from the Latin for "mountain born".  Ribes montigenum was first collected in 1893 in the California Sierras by McClatchie and he named the plant in 1897.

Montane, subalpine. Woodlands, streamsides. Spring, summer.
El Diente Trail, August 29, 2005 and Upper West Mancos Trail, October 1, 2010.

Normally, even in dry years, most flowers mature and produce a hearty crop of tasty berries.  In the continuing drought of 2003, however, we found almost no berries; from 2004-2010 berries were again abundant and tasty.

Fall color is usually shades of yellow.

Montane, subalpine. Woodlands, streamsides. Spring, summer.
Lizard Head Trail, September 15, 2010.

The dark hairs covering the berries might dissuade you from putting these fruits in your mouth, but the hairs are soft and you won't even notice them as you enjoy the delicate sweetness of these abundant Ribes.  The hairs are the same ones you see surrounding the ovary at the base of the petals in the photographs at the top of the page.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Ribes montigenum