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.  

"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.

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 2004-2007 berries were again abundant and tasty.  Berries are most often covered with purple/red hairs.