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White Flowering Currant
Ribes indecorum
  
23 Nurseries Carry This Plant

About White Flowering Currant (Ribes indecorum) 23 Nurseries Carry This Plant Ribes indecorum is a species of currant known by the common names white-flowered currant and white chaparral currant. It is native to the southern California Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges, from around Santa Barbara County in California south into northern Baja California.

It is an erect shrub approaching three meters in maximum height. The stem is fuzzy and glandular in texture. The deciduous leaves are 1 to 4 centimeters long. The thick, wrinkly blades are divided into three to five toothed lobes, and are hairy, glandular, and aromatic. The inflorescence is a loose raceme of 10 to 25 flowers. The flower is roughly tubular with the white or pink-tinged sepals spreading open to reveal smaller whitish petals inside. Flowers bloom in late winter / early spring, and have an exceptionally pleasant fragrance, among the best of any California native.The fruit is a hairy, sticky very attractive berry that can be orange, purple, pink or red, and are under a centimeter wide.

White Flowering Currant is very drought tolerant once established, but still does does best in part shade, or in spots that retain slightly more moisture, such as creek sides, north or east facing slopes, or adjacent to boulders. Best to avoid direct summer water after this plant is established. It'll go nearly completely summer deciduous, and then spring back to life with the start of the rainy season.
Plant Description
Plant Type
Plant Type
Shrub

Size
Size
5 - 10 ft tall
1 - 2 ft wide

Form
Form
Upright Columnar

Growth Rate
Growth Rate
Moderate

Dormancy
Dormancy
Summer Deciduous, Summer Semi-Deciduous, Winter Deciduous

Fragrance
Fragrance
Fragrant - Pleasant

Flower Color
Flower Color
White, Pink

Flowering Season
Flowering Season
Winter

Wildlife Supported
 
Hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators, small mammals

 
Butterflies & moths hosted ( 72 likely * ) SHOW ALL
*
Polygonia gracilis Image
Hoary Comma Polygonia gracilisPolygonia gracilis
*
Aglais milberti Image
Milbert's Tortoiseshell Aglais milbertiAglais milberti
*
Polygonia satyrus Image
Satyr Comma Polygonia satyrusPolygonia satyrus
*
Lycaena arota Image
Tailed Copper Lycaena arotaLycaena arota
*
Polygonia oreas Image
Oreas Comma Polygonia oreasPolygonia oreas
*
Hyles lineata Image
White-lined Sphinx Hyles lineataHyles lineata
*
Hyalophora euryalus Image
Ceanothus Silkmoth Hyalophora euryalusHyalophora euryalus

Landscaping Information
Sun
Sun
Part Shade, Full Sun

Moisture
Moisture
Low, Very Low

Summer Irrigation
Summer Irrigation
Max 1x / month once established

Nurseries
Nurseries
Carried by 23

Ease of Care
Ease of Care
Moderately Easy

Cold Tolerance
Cold Tolerance
Tolerates cold to -15° F

Soil Drainage
Soil Drainage
Medium, Slow

Soil Description
Soil Description
Rich, loamy soil. Soil PH: 6 - 8

Common uses
Common uses
Deer Resistant, Bird Gardens, Hummingbird Gardens, Butterfly Gardens, Bee Gardens

Companion Plants
Companion Plants
Spiny Redberry, Mission Manzanita, Laurel Sumac, Coast Live Oak, Sugar Bush

Sunset Zones
Sunset Zones?
7, 8, 9, 11, 14*, 15*, 16*, 17*, 18*, 19*, 20*, 21*, 22*, 23*, 24*

Natural Setting
Site Type
Site Type
Dry slopes, often near boulders or creeks, shady slopes or in gullies. Often grows under oak trees, and sometimes under sycamores.

Climate
Climate
Annual Precipitation: 4.5" - 41.1", Summer Precipitation: 0.14" - 2.94", Coldest Month: 37.0" - 57.0", Hottest Month: 59.1" - 86.7", Humidity: 0.64" - 37.63", Elevation: 9" - 7950"

Alternative Names
Common Names: White Chaparral Currant, White-flowered Currant, White-flowering Currant, Whiteflower Currant


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Sources include: Wikipedia. All text shown in the "About" section of these pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Plant observation data provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, Sunset information provided by Jepson Flora Project. Propogation from seed information provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Emery. Sources of plant photos include CalPhotos, Wikimedia Commons, and independent plant photographers who have agreed to share their images with Calscape. Other general sources of information include Calflora, CNPS Manual of Vegetation Online, Jepson Flora Project, Las Pilitas, Theodore Payne, Tree of Life, The Xerces Society, and information provided by CNPS volunteer editors, with special thanks to Don Rideout. Climate data used in creation of plant range maps is from PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, using 30 year (1981-2010) annual "normals" at an 800 meter spatial resolution.

Links:   Jepson eFlora Taxon Page  CalPhotos  Wikipedia  Calflora


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