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 roezlii flowers hanging pendent from the branches. Each flower has five reflexed red-purple sepals around a tube-shaped ring of smaller white or pinkish petals, the stamens and stigmas protruding. The fruit is a red or purple berry up to 2.5 centimeters long which is covered in thick, long spines. Among other currants and gooseberries with overlapping ranges, such as mountain gooseberry ("Ribes montigenum") or wax currant ("Ribes cereum"), the sierra gooseberry is especially notable for the large size and extreme spininess of its berries, and for the absence of a noticeable dried flower remnant at the end of the fruit. Seeds