Golden Currant
Ribes aureum var. aureum
Synonym: Chrysobotrya aurea
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This pair of photos show golden currants beginning to bloom along the Pinnacles Trail at Cottonwood Canyon State Park.........March 5, 2020.
The photo at right shows a leaf of golden currant as seen at Hog Lake.
Characteristics:
Golden currant is an attractive, erect shrub from 1-3 meters
tall with smooth stems and shiny green leaves. The leaves are 3-lobed at the
tips and wedge-shaped wit the point at the petiole. The lobes may be coarsely
or bluntly toothed at their tips, or entire. The leaves are 2-5 cm wide. The
surfaces of the older leaves tend to be without hairs, although young leaves
may have some hairs present.
The racemes are found on leaf bearing side branches. They are
25-75 mm long with 5-18 flowers. The fragrant flowers are 15-16 mm long with
yellow sepals 5-6 mm long and the yellow, orange, or reddish petals about half
as long as the sepals. The petals are erect and oblong-obovate in shape. The
fruits are smooth-surfaced, and red, black, or yellow in color.
Habitat:
Golden currant may be found along stream banks and in flood
plains in the grasslands, ponderosa pine forest, and in the sagebrush desert.
Range:
Golden currant may be found from central Washington south along
the eastern edge of the Cascades to California and east to southern Alberta,
Saskatchewan, and Montana. It has been introduced to British Columbia and may
occasionally be found wild there.
Uses:
1. Ornamental shrub (somewhat susceptible to the wetter conditions
west of the Cascades).
2. Popular plant of insect pollinators during the blooming
period.
3. The berries are palatable to both humans and animals.
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Close-up images of the long, narrow tube and corolla lobes of golden currant flowers as seen at Hog Lake about a dozen miles to the northeast of Sprague, Washington........April 27, 2006.
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Additional photos of golden currant as seen in wetlands along Oregon Highway 218 about one mile south of Shaniko, OR........May 14, 2010.
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Golden currant at left as part of landscaping at a private residence north of Spokane, WA......May 4, 2019. The photo at right shows golden currant along the west bank of the John Day River on the Pinnacles Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park......March 7, 2022.
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Golden currant as seen along the west bank of the John Day River about 2.5 miles downstream from the Cottonwood Creek State Park campground..........April 6, 2015.
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The photo at left shows golden currant as seen at Hog Lake, a BLM site east of Sprague, WA..........April 27, 2006. The photo at right shows golden currant as seen along the Hardstone Trail on the banks of the John Day River, Cottonwood Canyon State Park and adjacent BLM lands......March 26, 2021.
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The photo at left shows golden currant as seen on slopes above Wilson Creek, a BLM site about 10 miles southwest of Wilbur, WA........April 30, 2007. The photo at right shows a close-up of the flowers and a leaf of golden currant as seen in a riparian area at Fort Simcoe State Park to the southwest of White Swam, Washington.........April 5, 2008.
Golden currant blooming along the Hardstone Trail at Cottonwood Canyon State Park..... April 22, 2023.
The photo above shows the golden berry of Ribes aureum at Summer Lake.......July 3, 1996.
Paul Slichter