Ribes tristePall.

red currant

WFO wfo-0001135381 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ribes triste, photographed by Mary Krieger
fig. a Mary Krieger, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-27 / obs. 201226643
Ribes triste, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. b Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199301576
Ribes triste, photographed by Mary Krieger
fig. c Mary Krieger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159357515
Ribes triste, photographed by Rob Foster
fig. d Rob Foster, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154938179
Ribes triste, photographed by Ellyne Geurts
fig. e Ellyne Geurts, CC0 1.0 / obs. 165833472
Ribes triste, photographed by Ellyne Geurts
fig. f Ellyne Geurts, CC0 1.0 / obs. 165832589
Ribes triste, photographed by Ellyne Geurts
fig. g Ellyne Geurts, CC0 1.0 / obs. 164463409
Ribes triste, photographed by Ellyne Geurts
fig. h Ellyne Geurts, CC0 1.0 / obs. 163878684

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 52 botanical countries

Regions where Ribes triste is native: Amur, Buryatiya, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Manchuria, Primorye, Sakhalin, Yakutiya, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Yukon AmurBuryatiyaChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaPrimoryeSakhalinYakutiyaAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaConnecticutIdahoIllinoisLabradorMaineManitobaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNewfoundlandNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNova ScotiaNunavutOhioOntarioOregonPennsylvaniaPrince Edward I.QuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaVermontWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinYukon KoreaRhode I.
Native distribution of Ribes triste, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
Connecticut CNT
Idaho IDA
Illinois ILL
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nova Scotia NSC
Nunavut NUN
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Pennsylvania PEN
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Vermont VER
Washington WAS
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS
Yukon YUK
Amur AMU ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
Yakutiya YAK

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 240 in flower of 442 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Ribes triste observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 240 of 442 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 23 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Coreosma tristis Lunell
  • Ribes albinervium Michx.
  • Ribes altaicum Lodd. ex W.H.Baxter
  • Ribes ciliosum Howell
  • Ribes melancholicum Siev. ex Pall.
  • Ribes migratorium Suksd.
  • Ribes propinquum Turcz.
  • Ribes repens A.I.Baranov
  • Ribes rubrum f. acuminatum Regel
  • Ribes rubrum var. alaskanum (A.Berger) B.Boivin
  • Ribes rubrum var. albinervium MacMill.
  • Ribes rubrum var. propinquum (Turcz.) Trautv. & C.A.Mey.
  • Ribes rubrum var. subglandulosum Maxim.
  • Ribes triste f. pallidum Jancz.
  • Ribes triste f. pyriforme Lepage
  • Ribes triste f. repens (A.I.Baranov) Y.L.Chou
  • Ribes triste f. rubellum Jancz.
  • Ribes triste f. triste
  • Ribes triste var. alaskanum A.Berger
  • Ribes triste var. albinervium (MacMill.) Fernald
  • Ribes triste var. repens (A.I.Baranov) L.T.Lu
  • Ribes triste var. triste
  • Ribes warszewiczii Jancz.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.