Edible plant - novice Season - present all year. Flowers: spring. Fruits: summer Common names Flowering currant, blood currant
Scientific name meaning: Ribes is Arabic in origin and means "having sour sap". Sanguineum has Latin roots meaning blood, full of blood, or bloody in reference to the colour of the flowers
Habitat  An ornamental shrub that is popular in gardens and parks. Flowering currant is a native of North America and has naturalised in the UK. Growing feral, it is usually found in woodland and hedgerows, but can be found in open places as well. |
Overall structure  A tall, leggy shrub that has lots of cane-like growth near its base. It can be found as individual specimens or in small groups. |
Leaves  The leaves are palmately lobed with a toothed edge. They are rough to the touch and when crushed have a strong blackcurrant x sage/rosemary smell. |
Stem  They newly emerging stems start of deep pink. They are smooth and finely downy. As they age, they become brown and woody. |
Flowers  The flower heads are dangling raceme that resemble bunches of grapes before the flowers open. Once open, the flowers are either red, pink or white (depending on the variant) and have a sweet blackcurrant x sage/rosemary-like smell, but less strong than the leaves. |
Fruit  The egg-shaped berries that follow the flowers appear in summer and ripen to a dark purple. The remains of the flowers stay attached to the bottom of the fruits, which have a grey cast to their skin and are covered in coarse hairs. |
Possible lookalikes  Other currants, such as the redcurrant (Ribes rubrum), pictured, could be mistaken for flowering currant though their fruits are also edible. Their flowers are often small and green coloured. They also lack the leaf aroma, but blackcurrant leaves do smell of blackcurrant when crushed. Young maple saplings also look similar but do not form berries or petalled flowers.
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Use as a food The flowers can be used to make an interesting and beautifully flavoured cordial, sorbet, or syrup, or flavour puddings like panna cotta. They can also be sprinkled over savoury and sweet dishes.
The berries can be used to make jams, jellies, cordials, wine, syrup, fruit leather, and chutneys, but need more sugar and processing than other currants due to their high tannin, seed and hair content Use in herbal medicine and medicine None known at time of writing
If you are suffering from any ailment or need medical advice, please see your General Practitioner.
Hazards None known at time of writing
Other uses None known at time of writing Importance to other species Provides an important food source for pollinators, particularly bees
Always stay safe when foraging. You need to be 100% sure of your identification, 100% sure that your foraged item is edible, and 100% sure that you are not allergic to it (it is good practice to always try a small amount of any new food you are consuming). If in doubt, leave it out!
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