|
Northern Black Currant
Ribes hudsonianum Richards.
|
Family: Grossulariaceae,
Currant
Genus: Ribes
Description
General: erect shrub, without spines, mostly 0.5-1.5 m tall,
more or less glandular all over with stalkless, round, yellow,
crystalline and shining glands, and with a characteristic
strong, sweetish, rather unpleasant odor.
 Leaves: alternate, the blades broadly heart-shaped,
3.5-9 cm broad, usually glandular but otherwise hairless to
copiously hairy and pale on the lower surface and sparsely
hairy on the upper, with 3-5 pointed, toothed lobes.
 Flowers: many in elongate clusters up to 17 cm long.
Flower stalks slender, jointed below the flowers, 3-8 mm.
long. Ovary conical, covered with stalkless glands. Calyx
white, thickly crisp-short-hairy, widely flared and somewhat
saucer-shaped, 1-1.5 mm long, lined, the 5 sepals obovate,
3-4 mm long, spreading. The 5 petals white, about 1.5 mm
long, wedge-shaped upward. The 5 stamens inserted below
but about equaling the petals. Filaments hairless, anthers
oval, about 0.7 mm long. Styles about 2 mm long, joined
slightly more than half their length at flowering.
Flowering time: May-July.
 Fruits: berries, almost round, 7-12 mm long, black and
more or less waxy-coated, hairless or more commonly
stalkless-glandular, bitter and bad-tasting.
Distribution
Stream banks, moist woods, and thickets at the edge of
mountain meadows, in w. and s.c parts of MT. Also from
AK to Hudson's Bay, s. to n. CA, UT, WY, and MN.
 Edible and Medicinal plant, see below.
|
|
|
|
(click on image for full size)
|
|
var. petiolare:
(click on images for full size)
Edible Uses:
The fruits of northern black currant are edible raw or cooked. They don't taste very good raw, however
they can be made into black currant jelly or jam, which is delicious with meat, fish or bannock.
Medicinal Uses:
Black Currant was used medicinally by the Cree, Ojibwa, Tanana, and Thompson Indians. The raw fruits were
eaten as a treatment for colds. Decoctions of leaves and berries were taken for sickness in general. Decoction
of stems and leaves were taken for colds, sore throats, and for stomach troubles. The roots were used
for tuberculosis. Large quantities of northern black currants can be strongly purgative, and can even
cause vomiting at the same time but not if they are mixed with cranberries. The Thompson tribe believed
that this shrub had a calming effect on children, so sprigs of it were often put in baby carriers.
Varieties:
var. hudsonianum Richards.:
Plant rather generally hairy, the leaf blades short-hairy over the entire lower surface and usually with some short hairs on the upper surface. Ovary often without glands. From AK to Hudson's Bay, s. to s. B.C. and occasional to Okanogan Co., WA, n. ID and MT, and MN.
var. petiolare (Dougl. ) Jancz.:
Plant from almost totally hairless (except for the stalkless glands) to lightly short-hairy on the calyces, young stems, leaf stalks, and at least along the veins of the lower surface of the leaves. Ovary glandular. From s. B.C. southward in the Cascade Mts. to s.w. OR and n. CA, e. to ID, MT, UT, and n. WY.
|
|
|
Copyright © Plant-Life.org
|
|
