Ribes watsonianum

Plants 1-2 m. Stems ascending to erect, copiously grayish-hairy and abundantly stipitate-glandular, very slightly if at all bristly; spines at nodes 1 or 3, 3-7(-10) mm; prickles on inter-nodes absent. Leaves: petiole 2-4 cm, puberulent to pubescent, stipitate-glandular; blade broadly triangular, 3-5-lobed, cleft less than 1/2 to midrib, again 2-5 cleft, 2-5 cm, base truncate or cordate, surfaces thickly puberulent to pubescent, stipitate-glandular, lobes broad, rounded, margins coarsely crenate-denticulate, apex rounded. Inflorescences pendent, solitary flowers or 2(-3)-flowered racemes, 2-4 cm, axis pubescent, stipitate-glandular. Pedicels not jointed, 2-3 mm, pubescent, stipitate-glandular; bracts deltate, 2-3 mm, pubescent, stipitate-glandular. Flowers: hypanthium greenish or with some reddish tinge, tubular-campanulate, 2.5-3 mm, finely pilose, sparingly glandular; sepals not overlapping, reflexed, cream suffused with pink, narrowly oblong, 5.5-9 mm; petals connivent, erect, white, pinkish proximally, oblong, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 3.5-4 mm; nectary disc not prominent; stamens as long as or slightly longer than petals; filaments linear, 2-3 mm, glabrous; anthers white, oblong, 0.8-1.2 mm, apex rounded; ovary densely glandular-bristly; styles connate 3/4 their lengths, 6 mm, glabrous. Berries palatability not known, reddish, subglobose, 10 mm, densely yellowish-spiny.

Flowering May-Jul. Canyons, ridges; 1300-2200 m; Alta., B.C.; Oreg., Wash.

Ribes watsonianum occurs in the Cascade Range of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, and in Alberta. Analysis of combined datasets of ITS, ETS, psbA-trnH, and chloroplast restriction sites placed R. watsonianum as sister to sect. Grossularia (L. M. Schultheis and M. J. Donoghue 2004).