Photo: Ryan Hodnett, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Wild Black Currant

Ribes americanum

Also called American black currant, eastern black currant, Ribes floridum.

A thornless currant of moist woods and stream banks, with drooping yellow-green flowers in spring, black berries in summer and gold and crimson fall leaves.

EdibleWildlife valueTolerates wet soilFall colorBears young

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 3–6 ft
USDA zones: 3–7
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Stream banks, floodplain forests, the forest understory, rich moist slopes, swamps and wet flats
Native range: 29 states and the District of Columbia, north to North Dakota, south to New Mexico and west to Montana
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Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the District of Columbia
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Wild black currant is a thornless currant of cool, moist woods and wetlands across the northern states and southern Canada. Its leaves are dotted beneath with tiny golden resin glands. Its black berries are sweet when fully ripe and go into jam, jelly and pie. It is less common than it once was, because it hosts white pine blister rust and was rooted out in campaigns against that disease. Kentucky lists it as endangered, and Missouri counts it among its species of conservation concern. Maryland lists it as extirpated, although botanists reported finding it there again in 2018. Plant it at the damp edge of a wood or along a stream, where the birds can share the berries.

Size, growth and what to expect

Wild black currant grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It makes a many-stemmed shrub of 3 to 6 feet, often wider than tall. Plants begin fruiting after about three years.

Drooping clusters of 6 to 15 yellow-green to greenish white flowers open from April to June. The glossy black berries ripen from July into September, a quarter to half an inch across and full of tiny seeds. Birds, chipmunks, ground squirrels and other small mammals eat them. Deer, elk and moose browse the twigs. The leaves turn gold and crimson in fall.

It grows wild from Nova Scotia to Alberta and south to Virginia, Iowa, Nebraska and New Mexico. Its home is stream banks, swamps, wet meadows, fens, moist ravines and open woods.

How to grow Wild Black Currant

Wild black currant fruits best in full sun or part shade, and too much shade leaves it spindly. It wants a soil that stays moist, and it takes clay, alkaline soil and occasional flooding. Hot, dry sites stress it. Black walnut roots do not harm it. Set plants 5 feet apart and keep them 3 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant bare-root saplings in spring after the last frost, and potted ones from spring to midsummer if the soil stays moist. Set each at the depth it grew and put the native soil back in. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall, an eighth to a quarter inch deep, and it comes up in spring. Fall sowing suits it best, because some seed has a hard coat. For spring sowing, keep the seed damp in the refrigerator for 90 to 120 days first.

Water weekly through the first two summers, and keep grass and weeds away from young plants. It does not sucker, but birds carry its seed, and seedlings can come up nearby. Deer and other browsers eat the twigs, so cage young plants where deer are many. Keep the stems from crowding, since good air flow helps prevent leaf spot.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, and bees carry the pollen. Like its close relative the European black currant, a lone shrub sets fruit, but a second plant nearby gives a bigger crop. Leaf spot, rust and cane blight can turn up, but insects and disease are seldom serious. White pine blister rust does the currant little harm, and this currant is a lower-risk host than the European black currant. The rust still kills white pines and other five-needled pines. Keep this shrub at least 900 feet from any white pine, since the spores that carry the rust from currant to pine rarely survive farther. Because it "carries disease which kills white pine," the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center does not recommend it. Several states restrict or ban planting currants for this reason, among them Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and North Carolina, so check your state's rules first.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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