| PSC 2620: Woody Trees and Shrub | Course Home | Week 3 |
Ribes alpinum - Alpine Currant
Plant Viewer
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| Alpine Currant has a good, upright rounded form. | The bright green leaves have three lobes and are serrated. |
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| Red currants can form on female plants, but fruit production is unreliable. Image: Wikipedia.org |
Plant Description
Alpine Currant is an attractive, deciduous and dioecious, medium sized shrub that produces edible fruit. It grows 3-6 feet tall with a slightly smaller spread, producing a good, upright-rounded form at maturity. The stems are held stiffly upright and grows quite dense. It is a very hardy plant that is happy in nearly any situations and even very abused plants will quickly recover if given a little attention.
Ribes alpinum leafs out early in the spring, with 1-2 inch long leaves that have three lobes and a serrated margin. The leaves are bright green, slightly pubescent and arranged alternately on the stems. In the fall the leaves turn a mild yellow color.
Inconspicuous, small yellow-green flowers appear in spring in 2 inch long racemes. Following the flowering, fruit quickly forms on the shrub, ripening into a 1/3 inch wide currant. Immature fruit is a translucent yellow, while mature fruit is a bright red. Fruit is only produced on female shrubs.
Landscape Use
Use as informal hedges or as filler plants in shrub borders.
Points of interest
It is susceptible to leaf spot and aphids, though neither are considered a major problem. Only female shrubs produce berries.
Notable Cultivars
Green Mound: Slightly smaller (3-4 feet high and 2-3 feet wide) than the species, its form is more dense and spreading.
