Ribes hudsonianum

Ribes hudsonianum

Western Black Current is a common species of current bush in this area, with clusters of smooth black berries. There can be a large quantity of ripe berries, but unfortunately, the berries are quite bitter, have a bad taste, and are even slightly astringent. Also the leaves have a bad smell, which is not very strong, but quite noticeable when you are in a large patch of them.

Note that although this has a similar name, this is not the Black Current (Ribes nigrum) which is popular in Europe. There does not seem to be much published information on this species, so it would be hard to say if it is similar nutritionally to Ribes nigrum. Some sources note that it is edible, but few warn about the bitter taste. The taste of some species of currents is improved by cooking, but these are so bad tasting, that I doubt it will help.

Identification: The flowers of currents and gooseberries have a distinctive feature, which is hard to notice unless you look closely: the sepals are large and showy, but the petals are very small and easy to overlook. You can know that the show petal-like things are actually sepals because there are no greenish sepals under them. The true petals are very small and look more like a small fringe at the opening of the tube, or small moon-shaped appendages where the bell flares out; look closely and you will notice them. The flowers and leaves are very similar to Wolf Current (Ribes wolfii), but the fruit is quite different. The leaves are five-lobed, and the flowers are white, bell-shaped (many currents have tubular flowers), and grow in racemes. The fruit of Western Black Current is black and smooth, while the fruit of Wolf Current is blue and prickly.