Plants 0.5-1 m. Stems spreading to erect, finely puberulent, often thickly sprinkled with small, nearly sessile to rather strongly stipitate glands; spines at nodes absent; prickles on internodes absent. Leaves: petiole 2-5.5 cm, pubescent, stipitate-glandular; blade orbiculate, lobed into 3 main and 2 smaller segments, cleft 1/2 to midrib, 3-8 cm, base deeply cordate, surfaces puberulent and stipitate-glandular abaxially, glabrous adaxially, lobes ovate-deltate, margins 2 times crenate-serrate, apex acute. Inflorescences pendent, 7-15-flowered racemes, 3-5 cm, axis crisped-puberulent, stipitate-glandular, flowers evenly spaced. Pedicels jointed, 2-8 mm, crisped-puberulent, stipitate-glandular; bracts lanceolate, 6-8 mm, crisped-puberulent, stipitate-glandular. Flowers: hypanthium greenish white with pinkish tinge, shallowly bowl-shaped, 1-1.5 mm, crisped-puberulent, stipitate-glandular; sepals nearly overlapping, spreading, tips usually recurved, pinkish or white streaked with pink, broadly oblong-ovate to nearly deltate-obovate, 2-3 mm; petals very slightly connate or distinct, spreading with sepals, rose-red, obovate-cuneate, (inwardly pouched and nearly keeled in center), 1-1.5 mm; nectary disc greenish or cream, raised, angled, covering ovary; stamens nearly as long as petals; filaments oblong, 1 mm, glabrous; anthers cream, oval, 0.2-0.3 mm, apex acute; ovary finely crisped-puberulent; styles connate 3/4 their lengths, 0.7-1 mm, glabrous. Berries palatability not known, gray-black, spheric, to 10 mm, slightly pubescent, sparsely glandular.

Flowering Jun-Aug. Montane to alpine stream banks, meadow thickets, open ridges; 900-2200 m; B.C.; Idaho, Oreg., Wash.

Ribes acerifolium K. Koch (1869), which was believed to block the use of R. acerifolium Howell, was not validly published. Consequently, the name R. howellii Greene, proposed as a substitute name, is superfluous; it appears in many floras and on many herbarium specimens.