Currant, Wax (Squaw) - Ribes cereum

A spreading to round shrub 1 to 2 meters (3 to 7 feet) tall; stems are finely hairy, turning grayish to reddish-brown with age; leaves are kidney-wedge-fan shaped and shallowly 3 to 5 lobed with toothed edges, glabrous to downy with both surfaces somewhat glandular, dark green; flowers are both hairy and sticky, greenish-white to white, pink tinged with a nearly cylindrical hypanthium; fruit is berries, smooth, round, bright red and bitter. Habitat ranges widely from mid to high elevations on drier riparian slopes, foothills, to ponderosa pine forests, dry rocky southerly slopes and subalpine zones. Seeds usually mature in August. Depulp in a blender or macerator; cool, dry storage is recommended; cool, moist stratification (12 to 18 weeks) is required for freshly harvested seed prior to sowing. In some cases, a cold:warm:cold stratification series is needed to break dormancy; treatment with low concentrations of gibberellins for 1 to 8 days has been shown to produce germination rates of 30 to 55%; seed sown directly outdoors in December had only 1 percent germination by April in one study.

Greenhouse asexual propagation by hardwood cuttings taken in June with a heel and treated with 8,000 parts per million IBA, under mist. Transplants should be placed in field at one to two years of age.

Field propagation by dormant unrooted hardwood cuttings as described for Ribes aureum should also work.

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Last Modified: 07/05/2007