golden currant

Photo: Stan Shebs — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Showy, clove-scented yellow spring flowers as much as a fruit crop — sweet amber-to-black berries used historically for jam, jelly and pemmican.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

June–Aug

Mature size

Bush 1–1.5 m; excellent in containers

Light

Partial to full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.0

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Washington and Alberta east to Saskatchewan, south to western Nebraska, Colorado and northwestern Texas, west to Los Angeles, north to the eastern Cascades. Naturalised rather than native in British Columbia, where it is treated as exotic.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

1–2 yrs

Growth speed

Fast, reaching about 2.4 m within 2–3 years.

Spacing

137 cm (54 in) apart — about 1.9 m² (20 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Palmately 3(-5)-lobed, maple-like leaves 2–5 cm wide, light green and glossy, hairless.

Root system

A heart-root pattern of primary roots branching from the crown, plus suckering/rhizomatous spread that can form thickets in moist conditions.

Fruit description

Smooth, hairless, spherical berries about 5–6 mm across, ranging gold-yellow to orange, red or purplish-black depending on the plant; sweet and flavorful, can shrivel into a raisin-like fruit if left on the bush.

Propagation

Seed (60 days cold stratification) or cuttings; also spreads on its own by root sprouts.

Pollination

Self-fertile

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.