Black Currant

Black Currant - Ribes nigrum

Description

Shrub to the height of 1 or 1.5 metres. Leaves: Alternate, with fairly long stalks, strong-scented, blade with palmate venation, 3 to 5 lobed, with cordate base, toothed margins, hairless upper surface, and hairy underside covered with yellowish glands.

Inconspicuous flowers 8mm across, greenish-yellow, sometime tinged brown or purple; deeply cup-shaped; hairy.  Fruit: A black, fleshy berry.

Similar Species

Other currants

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

Leaves are very strongly scented

Recording advice

Photos of berries or close-up of flowers, and general photo of plant; note if strongly scented

Habitat

Woodland and wet places often close to habitation.

When to see it

Flowering time: May to June.

Life History

Deciduous shrub.

UK Status

Widespread and fairly frequent as a naturalised escape from cultivation in Britain.

VC55 Status

Occasional as a naturalised escape from cultivation in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 45 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Additional images

All NatureSpot records

Photo of the association

Nasonovia ribisnigri

On the primary hosts, Gooseberry and Blackcurrant, the wingless apterae are bright shiny green.  Winged adults have black markings on  abdomen. On the secondary host (plant in Daisy family, Asteraceae, including Lettuce) apterae can be green, pink or yellow.