Ribes triste

Ribes triste, known as the northern redcurrant,<ref name=feis>Template:FEIS</ref> swamp redcurrant, or wild redcurrant,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is an Asian and North American shrub in the gooseberry family.

Description

It grows to Template:Convert tall, with a lax, often creeping branches. The leaves are alternate, Template:Convert across, hairy below, and palmate with 3–5 lobes.<ref name="tktimb">Template:Cite book</ref>

From June to July, 6–13 small, purplish flowers are displayed in pendulous racemes, Template:Cvt long. The axis of the raceme is glandular. The fruit is a bright red berry, without the hairs that some currants have; it is rather sour.<ref>Template:EFloras</ref>

Distribution and habitat

Ribes triste is widespread across Canada and the northern United States, as well as in eastern Asia (Russia, China, Korea, Japan).<ref>Template:BONAP</ref><ref>Template:EFloras</ref> It grows in wet rocky woods, swamps, and cliffs.<ref name="tktimb" />

As a weed

Ribes is listed a plant pest in Michigan and the planting of it in certain parts of the state is prohibited.<ref name="PLANTS" />

Conservation

It is listed as endangered in Connecticut<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} (Note: This list is newer than the one used by plants.usda.gov and is more up-to-date.)</ref> and Ohio, and as threatened in Pennsylvania.<ref name="PLANTS">Template:PLANTS</ref>

Uses

Culinary

The berries are edible.<ref name="tktimb" /> Alaska Natives eat them raw and make them into jam and jellies.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Eskimos eat the berries<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and the Inupiat eat them raw or cooked, mix them with other berries which are used to make a traditional dessert. They also mix the berries with rosehips and highbush cranberries and boil them into a syrup.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Iroquois mash the fruit, make them into small cakes, and store them for future use. They later soak the fruit cakes in warm water and cooked them a sauce or mixed them with corn bread. They also sun dry or fire dry the raw or cooked fruit for future use and take the dried fruit with them as a hunting food.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Ojibwe eat the berries raw, and also preserve them by cooking them, spreading them on birch bark into little cakes, which are dried and stored for winter use.Template:Sfn In the winter, they often eat the berries with cooked sweet corn. They also use the berries to make jams and preserves.Template:Sfn The Upper Tanana eat the berries as food.Template:Sfn

Medicinal

The Ojibwe take a decoction of the root and stalk for kidney stones ('gravel')Template:Sfn and a compound decoction of the stalk to curtail menstruation;Template:Sfn the leaves are used as a 'female remedy'.Template:Sfn The Upper Tanana use a decoction of the stems without the bark as a wash for sore eyes.Template:Sfn

References

Bibliography

• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite book