American Black Currant, Wild Black Currant, Ribes americanum Mill. Native Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	American Black Currant	Ribes americanum Mill.	Currant (Grossulariaceae)	Woodland	Spring
Other names and notes	(Wild Black Currant). A small shrub growing primarily along the moist stream banks of the Woodland Garden, these plants are quite numerous. During flowering, the greenish-yellowish flowers, which are longer than they are wide, appear in dangling clusters of at least five or more flowers. the branches do not have thorns, the leaves are roughly toothed with three lobes that resemble a maple leaf. Like other Ribes, the plant is the alternate host to the White Pine Blister Rust.


Above: Flowers of early May. Below: Fruit forming at the end of May.

Notes: This plant is indigenous to the Garden area. Eloise Butler catalogued it on April 29, 1907. This plant was also listed on Martha Crone's 1951 inventory of plants in the Garden at that time. It is native to much of Minnesota except a few agricultural counties in the SW quadrant.

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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