Ontario Fruit Explorers

["Joe Boles" <jo.bo@rogers.com>]

Bert:     re letter to you from Barb Scharf, in responce to your enquiring regarding the subject seed.

 

Her description of the fruit is somewhat different than what my plants are producing; the colour is the same but the size of the fruit is no where near the size of gooseberries. Mine are mostly the size of a small peas except for the one we have taken cuttings from. The fruit from the one we took the cuttings from is bigger than the others but still not the size of a gooseberry. Its likely she has purchased a cultivar of some kind and the seed does not come true to the one she purchased. The flowers on my plants are yellow; I have not noticed the red centre though. There is two descriptions below I gleaned from the internet; the last paragraph of the 2nd one is likely what we have. Possibly we could get some hardwood cuttings from her. Let me know what you think.

 

    Joe

 

 

1)     Flowering currant, Missouri currant, a species of Ribes
        (R. aureum), having showy yellow flowers.

 

 

2)     Ribes odoratum   (syn. Ribes aureum var. villosum)            Grossulariaceae

Golden Currant, Missouri Currant, Clove Currant, Buffalo Currant               ri-BEEZ o-dor-A-tum

• Deciduous multistemmed shrub, to 6-8 ft (1.8-2.4 m) tall, open, branches without bristles or thorns.  Leaves alternate, simple, broadly ovate, 3-6 cm long, 3.5-7 cm wide, 3-5 lobes, coarsely toothed, base truncate or wedge-shaped, green of both side, pubescent on veins below and above.  Flowers yellow, often with some red, 5-10 per cluster, fragrant (cloves), tubular, 12 mm long, 5 petals, 5 stamens, style white, 8-10 mm long.  Fruit globose, purple-black, 10 mm diameter.
• Sun or part shade.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 4      Native range from North Dakota south to Texas, east to Minnesota and Arkansas.
• Often Ribes odoratum is now considered to be a botanical variety (var.) of R. aureum (R. aureum var. aureum), and named R. aureum var. villosum.
• It is similar to Ribes aureum (possibly more commonly known as the Golden Currant), whose native range is from British Columbia east to Saskatchewan, south to western Nebraska, Colorado, and northwestern Texas, west to Los Angeles, California, and north to the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range.  A third variety, Ribes aureum var. gracillimum, syn. Ribes gracillimum, is native to California and into Mexico.