Ribes triste, known as the northern redcurrant, swamp redcurrant, or wild redcurrant, is a shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 in the flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

 family Grossulariaceae, native to northern North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 in Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 south to Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 and Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

. This species grows in wet rocky woods, swamps, and cliffs.

It grows to 0.5 m tall, with a lax, often creeping branches. The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are alternate, palmately lobed with five lobes, 6–10 cm diameter. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are in pendulous raceme

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

s, 4–7 cm long. The axis of the raceme is glandular. Each raceme bears 6-13 small, purplish flowers that appear in June and July. The fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 is a bright red berry

Berry

The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....

, without the hairs that some currants

Ribes

Ribes is a genus of about 150 species of flowering plants native throughout the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It is usually treated as the only genus in the family Grossulariaceae. Seven subgenera are recognized....

 have.

Traditional Native American medical plants

The Dena'ina and other Native Americans use the berries as a food source. The Dena'ina names nunazk'et'i, which means "that which hangs down" and jeghdenghult'ila "ear it's tied onto" refer to the berries. It is said that the latter name relates to the idea that the hanging fruit resembles earrings.

Among the currants that grown in their country, the Dena'ina favor the northern red currant and the Trailing black currant for food. According to Osgood, red currants are also used for medicine. They were "skinned", placed in boiling water, and then wrapped and used as a poultice

Poultice

A poultice, also called cataplasm, is a soft moist mass, often heated and medicated, that is spread on cloth over the skin to treat an aching, inflamed, or painful part of the body. It can be used on wounds such as cuts...

for sore eyes. for the Inland people, the stem and bark of this plant is made into medicine for colds, flu, and tuberculosis by boiling the plant and taking the decoction internally. Some people prefer to use either the stem or bark while others use both parts. The Dena'ina use the cooled tea as a wash for sore eyes, too. The Inland people also make a wash for the eyes of puppies from the leaves of the Northern red current.