(Wolf’s Currant)

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Ribes wolfii, Lower Cataract Lake, Summit Co. 1202

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Ribes wolfii, FR 612, Lone Cone Area, San Miguel Co. 3536

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Ribes wolfii, FR 612, Lone Cone Area, San Miguel Co. 3545

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Ribes wolfii, Booth Falls Trail, Eagle Co. 4286

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Ribes wolfii, FR 612, Lone Cone Area, San Miguel Co. 3543

Scientific Name Ribes wolfii USDA PLANTS Symbol RIWO
Common Name Wolf's Currant ITIS Taxonomic Serial No. 24512
Family Grossulariaceae (Gooseberry) SEINet
Reference
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Description Life zones and habitat: Foothills to subalpine (7000 to 11000 ft); moist meadows, streamsides, and aspen forests.
Plant: Deciduous shrub 1.5 to 10 feet tall, spreading or erect, unarmed branches, grayish, becoming reddish to dark brown with age.
Leaves: Alternate, nearly orbicular in outline, 1/2 to 2-3/8 inches long, 1/2 to 3-1/2 inches wide with 3 to 5 broadly triangular lobes, green and smooth or slightly pubescent above, pale green with prominent veins below, margins irregularly toothed; petioles 1/4 to 1-3/4 inches long.
Inflorecence: Dense racemes of 7 to 25 small white flowers with short elliptic-lanceolate bracts below; each flower with a greenish, glandular-hairy cup-shaped hypanthium and 5 flaring off-white calyx lobes or sepals 1/8 to 1/16-inch long; 5 smaller off-white to yellowish green or pinkish petals and 5 stamens about the same length.
Bloom Period: May to August.
Fruit: Black, ovoid berries 1/4-inch across.
References: "Flora of Colorado" by Jennifer Ackerfield and SEINet.
BONAP Distribution Map

Map Color Key
Colorado Status:
Native

© Tom Lebsack 2024

Banner photo: Castilleja rhexifolia and a brewing storm over the San Juan Mountains