Ribes aureum var. aureum
Golden Currant

Family: Grossulariaceae (Gooseberry family)

Photo taken at Leavenworth City Park, shaded, near the river (5 to 10 meters away)

Flowers:

5 to 15 flowers per raceme, bright yellow, glabrous; petals 2 to 3 mm; hypanthium 6 to 10 mm, longer than wide, generally twice as long as sepals; sepals yellow; spicy odor

Leaves:

alternate; palmately lobed, 15 to 50 mm, base wedge shaped to subcordate; toothed or not, generally glandular when young, glabrous when mature

Plant:

shrub less than 3 meters tall, spines and prickles lacking. The berries were eaten fresh or dried for future use by the Okanagan-Colville and Yakama.

Habitat:

streambanks and washes in grassland or sagebrush desert to ponderosa pine forest

Distribution of species:

east slope of the Cascades, north Central Washington to California east to the east side of the Rocky Mountains, Saskatchewan and South Dakota to New Mexico

Distribution of genus:

120 species: Northern Hemisphere and temperate South America

More information about this plant:

Flora Northwest