How do you recognise Flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum)?

Leaf

Walter Siegmund (talk), Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

Flowering currant

Ribes sanguineum Pursh

Also known as: Red-flowering currant

Family: Grossulariaceae

2 to 3 m tall

Planted in hedges and garden beds for its early flowering

Flowering: March – April, before the leaves

Full sun

Part shade

Hardy to about -25°C

❓ How do you recognise this plant?

Flowering currant owes its name to the blood-red colour of its flowers, one of the very first shrub blooms of spring, as early as March. Flowering currant shares with blackcurrant palmate leaves that are aromatic when crushed, but its bright pink to red flowers in April (versus the inconspicuous greenish bells of blackcurrant) make them easy to tell apart in spring. Beware in late summer: its small blue-black berries may recall those of blackcurrant, but they are bland and of no culinary interest, unlike the highly aromatic berries of blackcurrant.

🍃 Leaves

Palmate, with 3-5 toothed lobes, aromatic when crushed

🌸 Flowers

Bright pink to red, in pendent racemes, appearing before or with the leaves

🍎 Fruits

Small blue-black berry, covered in a bloom, not very tasty

🪵 Bark

Greyish-brown, peeling in strips with age

🗺️ Distribution

Native to North America; widely grown in France as an ornamental shrub

🐝 Value for pollinators

Very early flowering, an important nectar resource for the first bumblebees and bees of spring

✂️ Horticultural uses

Ornamental shrub planted for its very early bright pink flowering, before most other shrubs

⚠️ Possible toxicity

Berries edible but bland, of no culinary interest; no known toxicity

⚠️ Look-alike species

Flowering currant

Ribes sanguineum

Blackcurrant

Ribes nigrum

Flowering currant shares with blackcurrant palmate leaves that are aromatic when crushed, but its bright pink to red flowers in April (versus the inconspicuous greenish bells of blackcurrant) make them easy to tell apart in spring. Beware in late summer: its small blue-black berries may recall those of blackcurrant, but they are bland and of no culinary interest, unlike the highly aromatic berries of blackcurrant.

🌿 Other Grossulariaceae to discover

ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.

🌱 This database is constantly evolving — species and information are added and corrected regularly. Spotted a mistake? Report it below.