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Portrait of Red currant

Nature · Shrubs

Red currant

Native or alien · flowers in spring · woods, hedges, stream valleys and fen-carr

Ribes rubrum — Grossulariaceae

A thornless deciduous shrub of damp woods, stream banks and fen-carr, with lobed leaves, small greenish-yellow flowers in hanging clusters and strings of shining red berries. Wild small-fruited plants may be native, but the species has been so widely cultivated that BSBI no longer maps records as native or alien. It is the parent of red, white and pink currants.

How to spot them

  • ▸Three- to five-lobed deciduous leaves, unarmed shoots (no spines, unlike gooseberry)
  • ▸Hanging clusters (racemes) of small greenish-yellow flowers in spring
  • ▸Hanging strings of shining, translucent red berries, edible
  • ▸Damp woods, hedges, stream valleys and fen-carr; 1.5–2.5 m
  • ▸Look-alikes: gooseberry is spiny with single or paired berries; blackcurrant has black berries and strongly scented leaves; downy currant is a rare northern relative

How to know it

Hanging strings of shining red berries on a spineless shrub with three- to five-lobed leaves

Red currant.

Its status in Britain is unclear because small wild fruits by streams may be native but large ones near old houses are cultivation relics

Red currant (BSBI).

The parent species of the red, white and pink garden fruits

Red currant (RHS).

First recorded in Britain in 1568, it grows in fen-carr and along stream valleys as well as hedges

Red currant (BSBI).

Unlike its close relative the gooseberry, this thornless species carries its glassy fruit in hanging strings

Red currant.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Ribes rubrum, family Grossulariaceae; rubrum means 'red'; currants are named after the Greek city of Corinth — raisins de Corauntz
  • •BSBI: native or alien in Britain, a neophyte in Ireland; the distinction between wild native and cultivated plants is too confused, so all British records are mapped without status
  • •First recorded in Britain in 1568 (BSBI)
  • •A deciduous shrub of woods, hedges, stream and river valleys, and fen-carr; to 455 m in Teesdale (BSBI)
  • •RHS: the parent species of redcurrant, whitecurrant and pinkcurrant varieties; 1.5–2.5 m tall
  • •EDIBLE: the red berries are edible, tart, and rich in vitamin C; leaves and stems are not eaten
  • •Least Concern on the GB and Welsh Red Lists (BSBI)

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