Distribution: Widespread east of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east to the Great Plains.
Habitat: Shrub-steppe and sagebrush desert to sub-alpine ridges.
Flowers: April-June
Origin: Native
Growth Duration: Perennial
Conservation Status: Not of concern
Pollination: Bumblebees, bees, hummingbirds
Spreading to erect, unarmed shrub 0.5-1.5 m. tall, the new branches finely puberulent, turning grayish-brown or reddish-brown.
Leaves alternate, reniform to fan-shaped with a wedge-shaped base, 1.5-2.5 cm. broad, palmately 3- or 5-lobed much less than half their length, the lobes with rounded teeth.
Flowers 2-8 in short racemes on peduncles much shorter than the leaves, the entire inflorescence pubescent and glandular; pedicels shorter than the bracts; calyx tube cylindric, 6-8 mm. long, the 5 lobes deltoid-ovate, spreading; lobes and tube greenish-white to white or strongly pinkish-tinged, 1.5-3 mm. long; petals spatulate-obovate, 1-2 mm. long, half exserted; stamens 5, shorter than the petals; styles 2, fused nearly full length; ovary inferior, sparingly glandular.
Berry ovoid, 6-8 mm. long, dull or bright orange or red.
Publication: Trans. Hort. Soc. London. 7: 512. 1830.
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var. cereum – wax currant
Widely distributed east of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east to the Great Plains. -
var. colubrinum – wax currant Occurring in the southeastern counties in Washington; southeastern Washington to adjacent Oregon and Idaho along the Snake River and its tributaries.
PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Ribes cereum in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database
WA Flora Checklist: Ribes cereum checklist entry
OregonFlora: Ribes cereum information
E-Flora BC: Ribes cereum atlas page
CalPhotos: Ribes cereum photos
