are favorite browse plants of both domestic animals and deer. This genus, along 

 with Grossularia Mill., is treated by some authors as a segregate family, Grossu- 

 lariaceae. 



1. Plants with spines or prickles at nodes; pedicel not jointed below the ovary; 

 flowers 5 or less per raceme 1. R. inerme. 



1. Plants without spines and prickles; pedicels usually jointed below the ovary; 



flowers more than 5 in each raceme (2) 



2(1). Flowers bright-yellow, becoming reddish with age; hypanthium tubular- 

 funnelform, 6-10 mm. long, glabrous 2. R. aureum. 



2. Flowers whitish to greenish-white or yellowish-white; hypanthium saucer- 



shaped or tubular-campanulate, less than 5 mm. long (3) 



3(2). Plant more or less adorned with yellowish sessile crystalline glands; hypan- 

 thium 3.5-4.5 mm. long, glabrous 3. R. americanum. 



3. Plant without crystalline glands; hypanthium 1-1.5 mm. long, crisp-puberulent 



4. R. mogollonicum. 



1. Ribes inenne Rydb. 



Erect to sprawling shrubs usually 1-2 m. tall; young branches glabrous or 

 somewhat retrorse-bristly, commonly with 1 to 3 nodal spines to about 1 cm. long; 

 leaves with petioles about as long as blade, mostly broadly ovate and 2-5 cm. 

 wide, rounded to cordate at base, rather deeply 3-lobed with the lobes deeply 

 crenate-serrate, the lateral lobes sometimes again lobed; racemes with 2 to 4 

 drooping flowers, glabrous, shorter than the leaves; pedicels slender, 3-7 mm. 

 long, not jointed; bracts ovate, 1-2 mm. long, ciliolate; hypanthium tubular- 

 campanulate, mostly 2.5-3 mm. long, greenish to purplish- or reddish-tinged, 

 glabrous or sparsely hirsute; calyx lobes oblong-lanceolate, spreading or some- 

 what reflexed; petals white or pinkish, cuneate-oblong to oblong, 1-1.5 mm. long; 

 stamens subequal to calyx lobes, the filaments glabrous; berry smooth, reddish- 

 purple, 7-9 mm. long, palatable. Grossularia inermis (Rydb.) Cov. & Britt. 



Wet stream banks, flats and thickets at edge of wet meadows to open mt. 

 ridges, in N. M. (Grant, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Santa Fe and Socorro cos.), 

 May-July; Mont, and Wyo. w. to B. C, s. to N. M. and Calif. 



2. Ribes aureum Pursh. Golden currant. 



Shrub to 2 m. tall; young branchlets light-tan-color, glabrous or puberulous; 

 leaves orbicular-reniform to obovate, cuneate to subcordate at base, to 5 cm. 

 wide, 3-Iobed, the coarsely crenate-dentate lobes often with only 2 or 3 teeth, 

 glabrous or sometimes puberulous on lower surface; petioles about as long as 

 blade; flowers yellow, fragrant or slightly so, 5 to 15 in a raceme; bracts oblong 

 to obovate; pedicels to 8 mm. long, jointed under the ovary; hypanthium slender, 

 yellow, 6-10 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide; sepals more than half as long as the tube, 

 spreading, upright and close in the faded flowers; petals changing to red; fruit 

 globose, black or purplish-brown, 6-8 mm. in diameter. 



Wet stream banks, flood plains, grasslands and conifer forests, in mts. of 

 Trans-Pecos Tex., N. M. (Grant, Guadalupe, Lincoln, Luna, San Juan, San 

 Miguel and Valencia cos.) and Ariz. (Navajo and Yavapai to Greenlee, Cochise, 

 Santa Cruz and Pima cos.). Mar .-June; from S. D. to Assiniboia and Wash., s. 

 to w. Tex., N.M., Ariz, and Calif. 



3. Ribes americanum Mill. Black currant. 



Erect to somewhat spreading unarmed shrubs to about 1 m. tall; young branches 

 crisp-puberulent and somewhat dotted with sessile yellowish crystalline glands, 

 eventually black with age; leaves with petioles equal to or shorter than blade; 

 shallowly cordate, 3-8 cm. wide, almost as long, deeply 3-lobed with the 



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