#ribes

Plant of the Day

Monday 5 May 2025

In this garden that has gone back to nature the Ribes sanguineum (flowering currant, American currant, red-flowered currant, winter currant) is still flourishing. This vigorous deciduous shrub survives the winds of Orkney and produces the racemes of reddish-pink tubular flowers in spring which are appreciate by the pollinators. There are a range of cultivars with flowers from deep pink, pale pink to white.

Ribes speciosum

The genus Ribes (in the family Grossulariaceae) includes the plants known as gooseberries and those known as currants (the key difference here is that gooseberries have thorny stems, while currants do not). This one is Ribes speciosum, known as the fuchsia-flowered gooseberry. Note that is is not related to the true fuchsias, just resembling them in having red dangling flowers. R. speciosum is a California native, found from the Bay Area southward along the coast and the Coast Ranges to Southern California and northern Baja California. Its abundant showy red flowers come very early in the year, making it a popular landscaping plant.

Ribes Sanguineum (Flowering Currant) taken from Paxton's Magazine of Botany by Joseph Paxton.

Published 1839 by Orr and Smith.

Biodiversity Heritage Library

Missouri gooseberry (Ribes missouriense)