Hudson Bay currant

Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author — Public domain · source

Survives zone 2 through 6

Harvest calendar

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

Black fruit that's notably bitter eaten raw — worth growing for jam and jelly rather than fresh eating.

Hardiness

Zone 2–6

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

June–Aug

Mature size

Deciduous shrub 0.5–2 m, spreading by suckers

Light

Partial to full sun (woodland/thicket)

Soil pH

6.0–7.0

Environment

Boreal

Native range

Alaska south through British Columbia to Oregon/Idaho/Washington, and east across every Canadian province to Quebec and Minnesota.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

1–2 yrs

Growth speed

Fast, and easily grown.

Spacing

150 cm (59 in) apart — about 2.3 m² (24 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Kidney-shaped to round, 3-lobed (rarely 5), 2–12 cm, deeply heart-shaped base, dotted with yellow glands on the underside, coarsely toothed margins.

Root system

Shallow and fibrous, the bulk of it in the top 30–45 cm and spreading wider than the bush is tall. Two consequences worth planning for: it dries out quickly in a hot summer, so mulch and water rather than cultivate around it, and low branches that touch the ground will often layer themselves, which is the easiest way to get a new plant.

Fruit description

Small (to 1.3 cm) round berries studded with yellow glands, ripening green through purplish to black; bitter-tasting, on a plant with an overall strong, unpleasant scent.

Propagation

Hardwood cuttings are close to foolproof: take pencil-thick shoots about 20–25 cm long in late autumn, push two-thirds into free-draining ground outdoors and leave them a year. Layering a low branch works too. Seed needs several months of cold stratification and is only worth it for breeding.

Pollination

Hermaphrodite flowers, insect-pollinated. No self-compatibility study for this species specifically: cultivated currants and gooseberries are largely self-fruitful, but controlled work on wild western Ribes found several species outright self-sterile, so a single plant is not a safe assumption. Plant two.

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.