Key to Ribes

Key to Ribes

Key to Wasatch-Bear Ribes

1	Plant stems with spines at least at the internodes or with bristles throughout		2
1	Plants lacking spines or bristles		4
2	Plants with stipular spines and occasionally with a few internodal spines; Inflorescence with few flowers, generally 4 or less; berry glabrous, reddish-purple ID (Bear Lake, Franklin), UT (Cache, Salt Lake, Summit, Utah, Wasatch, Weber)		Whitestem gooseberry Ribes inerme
2	Plants with bristles covering the stems, not only at internodes; berries stipitate-glandular, red to purple		3
3	Inflorescence with numerous flowers, generally 7 or more; berry dark purple UT (Cache, Salt Lake, Summit, Wasatch)		Prickly currant Ribes lacustre
3	Inflorescence with few flowers; berry red to reddish-brown ID (Bear Lake, Franklin), UT (Cache, Salt Lake, Summit, Utah, Wasatch, Weber)		Gooseberry currant Ribes montigenum
4	Plants with yellow flowers; leaf margins more or less smoothly rounded and glabrous; berries highly variable in color (golden, orange, red, purplish to blackish) and glabrous ID (Bear Lake, Franklin), UT (Cache, Davis, Morgan, Rich, Salt Lake, Summit, Utah, Wasatch, Weber)		Golden currant Ribes aureum
4	Plants with white, greenish-white, to pinkish flowers; leaves glabrous to variously pubescent, glandlular;		5
5	Plants strongly aromatic (somewhat skunk-like in odor); lower leaf surfaces with yellow glands; flowers 20-30 per raceme; berries blackish, more or less glabrous except for sessile glands; plants growing along streams associated with aspen or conifer ecosystems. ID (Bear Lake), UT (Salt Lake, Summit, Utah, Wasatch)		Western Black Currant Ribes hudsonianum
5	Plants not aromatic; flowers generally less than 20 per raceme; plants of a variety of habitats,  but generally in upland rather than riparian hatiats		6
6	Leaves 1-3 cm wide; berries reddish, sparingly glandular ID (Bear Lake), UT (Cache, Rich, Salt Lake, Summit, Utah, Wasatch, Weber)		Wax Currant Ribes cereum
6	Leaves broader; berries blackish, glandular		7
7	Hypantheum tubular with spreading petals; 4-12 per flowers raceme; leaves glandular, sticky UT (Cache, Morgan, Salt Lake, Summit, Utah, Wasatch)		Sticky Currant Ribes viscosissimum
7	Hypantheum saucer-shaped, also with spreading petals; 8-16 flowers per raceme; leaves sometimes glandular-hairy beneath, but often glabrous UT (Salt Lake, Utah)		Wolf’s Currant Ribes wolfii

 

Ribes aureum

Ribes cereum

Ribes hudsonianum (very aromatice leaves)

Ribes hudsonianum smooth berries (see R. wolfii in comparison)

Ribes lacustre

Ribes montigenum

Ribes viscosissimum

Ribes wolfii

Ribes wolfii with glandular berries