Wild Currant

Day 177: Ribes sanguineum, the Red-Flowering Currant, is one of our earliest spring bloomers in the backcountry of the Pacific Northwest. Loved by early migrant hummingbirds, the trumpet-shaped flowers may be held as erect clusters or may hang from the stem in cascading drupes. It is not uncommon to see groups of hummers warring over access to the sweetest flowers, nor to hear them cursing one another with high-pitched "tzeets." The blue-black fruit of this Wild Currant is edible but small and rather bland, unlike its domesticated cousins.