Blackcurrant Blackcurrant The blackcurrant or black currant ("Ribes nigrum") is a woody shrub in the family Grossulariaceae grown for its berries. It is native to temperate parts of central and northern Europe and northern Asia where it prefers damp fertile soils and is widely cultivated both commercially and domestically. It is winterhardy, but cold weather at flowering time during the spring reduces the size of the crop. Bunches of small, glossy black fruit develop along the stems in the summer and can be harvested by hand or by machine. The raw fruit is particularly rich in vitamin C and polyphenol phytochemicals.
Ribes nevadense dully toothed lobes. The inflorescence is a dense raceme of up to 20 flowers hanging pendent or held erect on the branches. Each flower has opens into a corolla-like array of five pinkish red sepals with five smaller white petals in a tube at the center. The fruit is an edible blue-black berry under a centimeter wide. It is somewhat waxy in texture and studded with glandular hairs. Ribes nevadense Ribes nevadense (sometimes spelled "R. nevadaense") is a species of currant known by the common names Sierra currant and mountain pink currant. "Ribes nevadense" is native to several of the