| + | Ribes nigrum, Linn. European Black Currant. Upright shrub, to 6 ft., with rather stout branches, of strong disagreeable odor: lvs. suborbicular, cordate, 3-5-lobed, with broad, acutish irregularly serrate lobes, sparingly pubescent, resinous-dotted beneath, to 4 in. broad: racemes 5-10-fld.; bracts small, much shorter than the pedicels; ovary and calyx pubescent and glandular; calyx-tube broadly campanulate; sepals oblong, recurved; petals reddish or whitish, about half as long as sepals: fr. black, subglobose, 1/3-2/5in. thick. Eu.; N. and Cent. Asia, Himalayas. S.E.B. 4:523. R.F.G. 23:137.—Sometimes cult. for its fr. and escaped in the eastern and middle states. Var. heterophyllum, Pepin (var. aconitifolium, Kirchn., var. crispum, Hort., var. laciniatum, Lav.). With divided lvs., sometimes nearly to the base, the lobes irregularly and deeply incised. Var. apiifolium, Kirchn. (var. dissectum, Nichols.). Lvs. 3-parted, usually to the base, the lobes pinnatifid with narrow segms. Var. xanthocarpum, Spaeth (var. fruictu-luteo, Hort.). Fr. yellow. Var. chlorocarpum, Spaeth (var. fructu-viridi, Hort.). Fr. greenish. Gt. 16:562, fig. 16. There are also forms with variegated lvs. as var. variegatum, Nichols., var. marmoratum, Mouillef., and var. reticulatum, Nichols. |