# Wild Black Currant (Ribes americanum)

> 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.

Also called American black currant, eastern black currant, Ribes floridum. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/wild-black-currant/

![Wild black currant (Ribes americanum) clusters of young green berries hanging among lobed leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/wild-black-currant-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Ryan Hodnett, CC BY-SA 4.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAmerican_Black_Currant_%28Ribes_americanum%29_-_Guelph%2C_Ontario_2020-06-07_%2801%29.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 3 to 6 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 7
- 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 (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)
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Edible, Wildlife value, Tolerates wet soil, Fall color, Bears young
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

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.

## Sources

- [USDA Fire Effects Information System: Ribes americanum, Marshall 1995](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/shrub/ribame/all.html)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 8: Ribes americanum](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=241000647)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: American black currant, Ribes americanum, Knudson 2010, Bismarck Plant Materials Center](https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_riam2.pdf)
- [USDA PLANTS: Ribes americanum, profile and characteristics](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/RIAM2)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Ribes chapter, Pfister and Sloan](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Ribes.pdf)
- [The Morton Arboretum: American black currant](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/american-black-currant/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Ribes americanum](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RIAM2)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Ribes americanum](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/ribes/americanum/)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation Field Guide: American black currant](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/american-black-currant)
- [Kentucky Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves: 2022 Kentucky Rare Plant List](https://eec.ky.gov/Nature-Preserves/biodiversity/Documents/2022%20Kentucky%20Rare%20Plant%20List%202.pdf)
- [Maryland Natural Heritage Program: List of Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Plants of Maryland, March 2021](https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/rte_Plant_List.pdf)
- [Minney and Landsman 2018, Rediscovery of Ribes americanum (Grossulariaceae) in Maryland, Castanea 83: 88-90](https://doi.org/10.2179/2017-150)
- [Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Natural Heritage: Natural Heritage Resources of Virginia, Rare Plants, June 2026](https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/document/plantlist-current.pdf)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Ribes americanum](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.145634/Ribes_americanum)
- [Maine Forest Service: White Pine Blister Rust fact sheet, August 2008](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/forest_health/diseases/white_pine_blister_rust.htm)
- [NHBugs, University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension with the N.H. Division of Forests and Lands: White Pine Blister Rust](https://www.nhbugs.org/damaging-insects-diseases/white-pine-blister-rust)
- [North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Plant Industry: White Pine Blister Rust](https://www.ncagr.gov/plant-industry-white-pine-blister-rust)
- [Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management: 250-RICR-40-10-2, Rules and Regulations Governing the Suppression of White Pine Blister Rust](https://dem.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur861/files/pubs/regs/regs/agric/pinebls2.pdf)
- [UMass Extension: Currants and Gooseberries, Prohibited Towns in Massachusetts, undated fact sheet](https://www.umass.edu/agriculture-food-environment/sites/ag.umass.edu/files/fact-sheets/pdf/currants_gooseberries_prohibited_towns.pdf)
- [Ohio State University Extension: HYG-3205, White Pine Blister Rust on Currants and Gooseberries, Ellis and Horst, 2010](https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/HYG-3205)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for birds: caterpillars, fruit, mast, nests and winter cover, month by month](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-birds/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Wild Black Currant, add ?species=wild-black-currant with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=wild-black-currant&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Wild Black Currant](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=wild-black-currant): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=wild-black-currant
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Wild Black Currant is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=wild-black-currant
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Wild Black Currant needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=wild-black-currant:2
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Wild Black Currant flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.