Ribes cereum
Common name: 
Wax Currant
Pronunciation: 
ri-BEEZ SEE-re-um
Family: 
Grossulariaceae
Genus: 
Ribes
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
Yes
  • Deciduous multistemmed shrub, 4-6 ft (1-2 m) tall, densely branched, branches without bristles or thorns.  Leaves rounded, 1-4 cm wide with 3-5 indistinct lobes, margins crenate, white waxy, gray-green, nearly smooth upper surface and downy gray below.  Flowers tubular, 6-8 mm long, greenish-white to pinkish.  Fruit globose, red to orange, shiny, listed in the literature as unpalatable to good flavor.
  • Sun.
  • Hardy to USDA Zone 5?      Native from British Columbia to northern California east to Montana, Nebraska, Colorado, and New Mexico.  Its habitats are dry woods and rocky slopes; found in eastern Oregon and Washington and the Siskiyous.  [Hitchcock and Cronquist (1973) list three varieties, cereum, inebrians and colubrium.]
  • Oregon State Univ. campus: north side of Peavy Hall, in front of the Dawn Redwood
Click image to enlarge
  • young plant habit, spring flowering

    young plant habit, spring flowering

  • flowers and leaves

    flowers and leaves

  • leaf and flower cluster

    leaf and flower cluster

  • flower cluster

    flower cluster

  • plant habit

    plant habit

  • plant habit

    plant habit

  • leafy branch

    leafy branch

  • leaves

    leaves

  • developing fruit

    developing fruit

  • stems, bark

    stems, bark