GOLDEN CURRANT

Golden currant, with its many bright yellow flowers and colorful berries, is a thicket-forming, erect shrub found mainly along water courses in Southern California.

Native to inland areas of the western United States, the bushy shrub reaches heights of up to 6 feet. Its neat-appearing foliage consists of smooth, grayish-green leaves with three rounded lobes up to 2 inches wide.

The small, bell-shaped flowers of the golden currant (Ribes aureum) grow in dense clusters during the spring on either side of the shrub’s smooth stems. Their spicy fragrance makes them attractive to bees and other insects. Individual blooms have five petals and are about 2 inches long. A slender tube about inch long can be found inside the blossom.

In the summer, the currant’s flowers give way to smooth red, yellow, or black berries about inch in diameter. Like those of its relative, the gooseberry, the golden currant’s berries are edible. Another variety of currant produces a type of small, seedless raisin often used in cooking.

The golden currant is often used as an ornamental plant and is easily grown from suckers or cuttings.

Pictured here are golden currant shrubs along the Santa Clara River in the Santa Clarita Valley. They also can be found in the Santa Monica Mountains and in the San Gabriel Valley.