Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Ribes inerme Rydb.
- Family: Saxifrage (Saxifragaceae)
- Flowering: May-June
- Field Marks: This gooseberry differs from most others by having few or no bristles or spines on the branches. The leaves are smooth.
- Habitat: Along streams, shaded woods, particularly in the mountains.
- Habit: Much-branched shrub up to 8 feet tall.
- Twigs: Few or no spines at the nodes, and few or no bristles between the nodes.
- Leaves: Alternate, simple, up to 3 inches long, up to 3 inches wide, palmately 3- or 5-lobed, each lobe with a few rounded teeth, smooth, rounded or heart-shaped at the base.
- Flowers: 1-4 in the axils of the leaves, on stalks shorter than the leaf stalks.
- Sepals: 5, united to form a cup, green or purplish-tinged, smooth.
- Petals: 5, free from each other, white, 1/12-1/8 inch long.
- Stamens: 5.
- Pistils: Ovary inferior.
- Fruits: Berries spherical, smooth, wine-colored, 1/4-1/2 inch in diameter.
- Notes: The berries are eaten by birds and bears.
Previous Species -- Hudson Bay Currant (Ribes hudsonianum)
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Next Species -- Peach-leaf Willow (Salix amygdaloides)
