Plants 1-2.5 m. Stems erect, finely pubescent, stipitate-glandular; spines at nodes absent; prickles on internodes absent. Leaves: petiole 2.5-3.5 cm, pubescent; blade roundish, 3-lobed, shallowly cleft, 4-6 cm, base cordate, surfaces densely hairy abaxially, with wavy, long, soft hairs adaxially, lobes rounded, margins crenate, with gland-tipped teeth, apex rounded. Inflorescences erect, spike- or headlike, 15-25-flowered racemes, 3-6 cm, axis densely stipitate-glandular, flowers crowded into distal 1/4-1/3. Pedicels jointed, 1-2 mm, white-villous; bracts lanceolate, 2-4 mm, white-villous. Flowers: hypanthium rose-purple, broadly urceolate, 0.5-1 mm, villous-pubescent with some gland-tipped hairs; sepals not to somewhat overlapping, spreading, rose-purple with darker veins, deltate-ovate, 2 mm; petals nearly connivent, erect, pale rose-purple, flabellate to spatulate-obovate, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 1 mm; nectary disc not prominent; stamens nearly as long as petals; filaments linear, 0.5 mm, glabrous; anthers yellow, ovate, 0.2-0.3 mm, apex minutely apiculate; ovary white-villous with some stipitate glands; styles distinct to base, 1 mm, sparsely hairy proximally. Berries palatability not known, purple, globose-ovoid, 5-6 mm, lanate- or glandular-hairy.

Flowering Feb-Jun. Chaparral; of conservation concern; 300-1200 m; Calif.

Ribes canthariforme is endemic to the Cuyamaca-Laguna Mountain region of San Diego County. It has quite thick leaves. Thirteen populations are known; nine of those are historic. About 70 plants have been found in the remaining populations.