Ribes glandulosum (Skunk Currant) - photos and description
General: Shrubs with branches trailing, ascending to
erect. Leaves when bruised gives a skunky odor. Stems with no prickles.
Flowers: Flowers grow in ascending to erect racemes,
flowers white with a pinkish tinge, more or less bell-shaped. The
pedicles and calyx with glandular hairs, each hair with a red drop of
resin at their tip. We counted up to 11 flowers in a raceme, we measured
a raceme up 5 cm long, and a flower at 5 mm long and 4 mm diameter.
Leaves: Leaves alternate or grow in clusters at stem tips. The leaves have a maple leaf profile with 5 lobes, the lobes with sharp tips. Unlike some other Saskatchewan Ribes species there are no resinous dots on the leaf undersides. Very short hairs on top of leaves, longer hairs on veins below, ciliate, petioles glandular hairy. The leaf highlighted in the photo above was measured at 4.5 cm long by 7 cm wide.
Height: Stem length listed in Budd's Flora to 100 cm. We measured plants to 65 cm tall.
Habitat: Damp woods in the parklands and boreal forest.
Abundance: Listed as common, uncommon in our experience.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: Took the above photos May 30th in moist woods, Pasquia Provincial Forest, about 425 km northeast of our home in Regina, SK.