BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Ribes lacustre | Bristly Black Currant 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Bristly black currant is a native, deciduous shrub that grows 3 to 4
feet (1-1.2 m) tall [44,59,72].  In sunlight bristly black currant grows
erect, but in shade, branches are often reclining or trailing [44].
Bristly black currant has prickly stems and nodal spines.  The drooping
raceme has 5 to 15 flowers [33].  The berries average 0.34 inch (8.6 mm)
in diameter and contain an average of 16.5 small seeds [52].

The root systems of Ribes spp. consist of shallow roots radiating from a
central root crown [47].  Bristly black currant roots are very shallow,
especially on moist sites, but lateral spread can be extensive [48].
Some sources report that bristly black currant is rhizomatous [22,48]
while others report that it is nonrhizomatous [61].  Bristly black
currant partially buried by volcanic ejecta from Mount St. Helens in
southern Washington had not developed rhizomes but had a well-developed
adventitious root system [3].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Phanerophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Bristly black currant regenerates primarily from seed.  Plants first
begin producing seeds when 3 to 5 years old.  An average bush produces
50 to 75 berries.  Good crops occur in 2- to 3-year intervals.  Some seeds
are dispersed by animals, but many berries fall to the ground beneath
the parent plant [44].

Stratification is usually required to break the dormancy in bristly
black currant seed.  Seeds stored at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 deg C) for
120 to 200 days had 48 percent germination in sand moistened with
nutrient solution.  Alternating diurnal temperatures (77 degrees
Fahrenheit [25 deg C] and 41 or 50 degrees Fahrenheit [5 or 10 deg C])
results in some germination without prior stratification.  Scarification
enhances germination.  A five-minute soak in 2 to 10 percent sulfuric
acid solution improved germination [51].

Mineral soil is the best seed bed.  Bristly black currant establishes on
well scarified sites [44,61].

Bristly black currant seeds have longterm viability.  They accumulate in
the organic mantle and mineral soil over time.  The mineral soil
seedbank in mature forests in west-central Idaho contained 51 viable
bristly black currant and sticky currant (Ribes viscosissimum) seeds per
square foot (567/sq m).  Over 80 percent of the viable seeds were found
in the top 2 inches (5 cm) of mineral soil.  The two Ribes spp. were
combined in the data because seedlings could not be distinguished in the
greenhouse [39].

Bristly black currant regenerates vegetatively [44,48].  Bristly black
currant stems in contact with soil produce adventitious roots [3,27,48].
In southern Washington, bristly black currant that was partially buried
for 1 year by 2 to 8 inches (5-20 cm) of volcanic ejecta had two to five
adventitious roots per centimeter of stem.  Maximum adventitious root
length was 10 inches (25 cm) [3].  Offord and others [48] observed
rhizomes in bristly black currant near Mount Hood in northwestern
Oregon.  Some sources [22,43,47] suggest that bristly black currant
sprouts from the root crown, but definitive documentation was not found
in the literature.


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Bristly black currant occurs in moist woods and forests, ravines, shrub
thickets, meadow margins, swamps, rock crevices, seepage areas, along
avalanche chutes, on streambanks, and on steep slopes [4,27,33,34,59].
On Big Snowy Peak in central Montana, bristly black currant grows in
crevices of limestone outcrops and cliffs [5].

Bristly black currant occurs in cool, moist climates.  It occurs from
7,700 to 10,500 feet (2,300-3,200 m) in Utah, 7,000 to 11,400 feet
(2,100-3,500 m) in Colorado, 5,500 to 10,700 feet (1,700-3,300 m) in
Wyoming, and 3,000 to 8,700 feet (900-2,700 m) in Montana [17].  At the
southern extremes of its range (California, Utah, Colorado, and West
Virginia), bristly black currant occurs in cool high-elevation forests
[1,56,65].  It is found more often on northerly and easterly exposures
than southerly or westerly exposures [44].

Bristly black currant occurs on moist, nutrient-rich sites.  In 91- to
160-year-old lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) stands and 60- to
160-year-old white spruce (Picea glauca) stands in west-central Alberta,
bristly black currant had significantly (P<0.025) higher canopy cover on
sites with high site index (indicative of higher productivity) than
low site index [66].  In the Prince Rupert Forest Region of British
Columbia, bristly black currant occurs on mesic to subhydric sites with
high nutrient status (permesotrophic to subeutrophic) [73].  It occurs
in both acidic and basic soils [1,5].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Bristly black currant is moderately shade tolerant [32,44] but grows
most vigorously in canopy openings [27].  It establishes in partial
shade or full sun after disturbance and then persists in the understory
of closed canopy forests and woods [10,44,61].  Seedlings are suppressed
on sites with more than 75 percent of full shade [44].  Bristly black
currant established on a 1-year-old mudflow surface formed by the
volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens.  The mudflow was reworked
nonorganic substrate with no shallowly buried soil [30]

Dense thickets of bristly black currant are uncommon.  Bristly black
currant canopy cover reported in the literature is generally less than
10 percent and commonly less than 1 percent [16,27,32].

Bristly black currant response to timber harvest is an indicator of its
successional status.  Although bristly black currant generally increases
after clearcutting [2,20,23,32], its response is varied.  In western
Montana bristly black currant cover averaged 1.5 percent in 7- to
16-year-old clearcuts but was only a trace in uncut stands [2].  In
northern British Columbia, bristly black currant increased in abundance
on alluvial and poorly drained sites following clearcutting [20].
Bristly black currant is a principal understory species on clearcuts in
northwestern Washington [23].  In subalpine forests in central Colorado,
pre- and postlogging bristly black currant canopy cover was not
significantly (P<0.05) different [13].  In northwestern Montana, bristly
black currant response to clearcutting depended on habitat type.  In the
subalpine fir/queencup beadlily habitat type, bristly black currant
canopy cover was lower on burn sites, clearcut sites, and avalanche
chutes than on old growth sites; in the more mesic subalpine
fir/menziesia (Menziesia spp.)  habitat type, bristly black currant
canopy cover was higher after these disturbances than on old-growth
sites [74].

  


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Bristly black currant flowers from May to June, and berries ripen in
August.  Seeds germinate in the spring [51].  Bristly black currant does
not always produce fruit in spruce-fir (Abies spp.) forests of Canada
because of the short growing season [27].

Related categories for Species: Ribes lacustre | Bristly Black Currant