Ribes bracteosum
Encyclopedia
Ribes bracteosum is a species of currant
native to western coastal North America
.
It is a deciduous
shrub
, without thorns, growing to 3 m tall. The leaves
are 5-20 cm broad, palmately lobed with five to seven lobes. The flower
s are produced in spring after the leaves emerge, on raceme
s 15-30 cm long of 20-40 flowers; each flower is 5-10 mm diameter, with five white or greenish-tinged petals. The fruit
, born in clusters, is dark blue with a whitish bloom, edible but sometimes unpleasant.
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....
native to western coastal 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...
.
It is a deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
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...
, without thorns, growing to 3 m tall. 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 5-20 cm broad, palmately lobed with five to seven lobes. 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 produced in spring after the leaves emerge, on 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 15-30 cm long of 20-40 flowers; each flower is 5-10 mm diameter, with five white or greenish-tinged petals. 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,...
, born in clusters, is dark blue with a whitish bloom, edible but sometimes unpleasant.