Prickly Currant

More info for the term: prescribed fire

For further information on bristly black currant response to fire, see Fire Case Studies.  The Research Project Summary and Research Papers
(Hamilton 2006a, Hamilton 2006b) of Hamilton's studies and Lyon's
Research Paper (Lyon 1966) also provide information on prescribed fire
and postfire response of plant community species, including bristly
black currant.

More info for the term: swamp

bristly black currant
swamp currant
prickly currant

More info for the term: cover

In Wyoming, bristly black currant is considered poor cover for elk and
pronghorn and fair cover for mule deer and white-tailed deer.  It is good
cover for upland game birds, small nongame birds, and small mammals [17].

More info for the terms: adventitious, root crown, shrub

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].

Bristly black currant occurs throughout Canada from Newfoundland to
Yukon Territory and in Alaska [35,54,59].  It extends south into the
continental United States in the Coast and Cascade ranges to northern
California, in the Rocky Mountains to central Colorado and northern
Utah, in the Great Lake States, and in the Appalachian Mountains to West
Virginia [8,25,33,65,72].  In the northern Great Plains region, bristly
black currant occurs in the Black Hills [26].

More info for the terms: cover, density, forest, low-severity fire, seed, stand-replacing fire

Bristly black currant occurs in many forest types, such as grand fir and
Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii)-subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa),
that are characterized by long fire-free intervals punctuated by severe,
stand-replacing fires [22,77].  The ability of bristly black currant to
regenerate after fire from long-lived seed stored in soil or from
off-site sources makes bristly black currant fairly resilient to
stand-replacing fire [89].  Low-severity fire is probably more favorable
to Ribes spp. than severe fire [78].

After fire bristly black currant canopy cover increases slowly, reaching
a maximum density in several to many decades [15,42,76].  Bristly black
currant cover was reported for sites with a history of fire in the
southern boreal forest region of Quebec.  Postfire ages of sites ranged
from 26 to 230 years.  Bristly black currant was present on all sites at
low cover.  The highest bristly black currant cover recorded (2.2
percent) occurred on the site with a postfire age of 74 [15].  The
percent bristly black currant cover follows:

                                     Years since fire

                  26  46 74 120 143 167 174 230

Canopy cover      0.1    0.2 2.2 1.0 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1

In north-central Idaho, the vegetation was measured for 36 clearcut and
broadcast burned sites and 7 old-growth sites.  Postfire ages of burned
sites ranged from 1 to 23 years.  Bristly black currant average percent
canopy volume (percent of total volume occupied in a 1x1x3 m space)
and average height by postfire year follow [75]:

                                      Years since fire

                         1       3  8 12 23  old growth

Avg. % canopy volume  0.1  0.1  0.3 0.8    trace

Average height (cm)      11  24  45  65 43      25

More info for the terms: cover, density, fire management, forest, fuel, fuel moisture, herbaceous, litter, prescribed fire, seed, shrub, tree, wildfire

Nutrient content of shrub species was estimated for seven silvicultural
treatments including burning in the Coram Experimental Forest in
northwestern Montana [60].  The elemental content of bristly black
currant branches and leaves collected in July and August is presented [60].

FIRE CASE STUDY
SPECIES: Ribes lacustre
FIRE CASE STUDY CITATION :
Carey, Jennifer H., compiler. 1995. Sawtooth National Forest, Idaho, prescribed fire
study: effects on bristly black currant. In: Ribes lacustre. In: Fire Effects
Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service,
Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer).
Available: https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [
var months = new Array(12);
months[0] = "January";
months[1] = "February";
months[2] = "March";
months[3] = "April";
months[4] = "May";
months[5] = "June";
months[6] = "July";
months[7] = "August";
months[8] = "September";
months[9] = "October";
months[10] = "November";
months[11] = "December";
var date = new Date();
var year = date.getFullYear();
var month = date.getMonth();
var day = date.getDate();
document.write(year+", "+months[month]+" "+day);
].


REFERENCE :
Lyon, L. Jack. 1971. Vegetal development following prescribed burning of
Douglas-fir in south-central Idaho. Res. Pap. INT-105. Ogden, UT: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Forest and
Range Experiment Station. 30 p. [42].


SEASON/SEVERITY CLASSIFICATION :
Summer/severe


STUDY LOCATION :
The study site is located in Neal Canyon, 6 miles (9.6 km) north of
Ketchum, Idaho, in the Sawtooth National Forest.


PREFIRE VEGETATIVE COMMUNITY :
The study site was selectively logged in 1950 and 1960.  The remaining
trees were primarily pole and sapling Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga
menziesii), many of which were diseased.  Minor tree species included
lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa),
Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), and quaking aspen (Populus
tremuloides).  Understory vegetation was dominated by Rocky Mountain
maple (Acer glabrum) and mountain snowberry (Symphoricarpos oreophilus).
Bristly black currant was a minor species.

Vegetation layers over and under 18 inches (46 cm) in height were
sampled and described separately.  Bristly black currant under 18 inches
occurred on 20 percent of the study quadrats.  Bristly black currant
abundance of plants over 18 inches in height was:

density                     0.9 plant/1,000 sq feet
canopy cover                0.67 percent
aerial crown volume        16.8 cubic feet/1,000 sq feet


TARGET SPECIES PHENOLOGICAL STATE :
Bristly black currant was probably in flowering and fruiting stages on
August 1, the day of the fire. 


SITE DESCRIPTION :
The mountainous study site is at 6,500 feet (1,980 m) elevation.  Annual
precipitation is from 14 to 17 inches (360-430 mm), most occurring in the
winter as snow.  The slope averages 64 percent and the aspect is 10 to
20 degrees.  The soils are rocky, averaging 50 percent gravel.


FIRE DESCRIPTION :
The fire was started at 8 a.m. on August 1, 1963 and burned until 5 p.m.
Air temperature was 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 deg C) in the morning and
nearly 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 deg C) in the afternoon.  Relative
humidity declined from 50 percent in the morning to 10 percent in the
afternoon.  Fuel moisture sticks indicated 5 to 6 percent moisture.
Surface winds were less than 5 miles per hour, but fire-induced gusts up
to 30 miles per hour were recorded.

The fire was severe and crowned.  All litter, herbaceous plants, dead
woody stems less than 3 inches (7.6 cm) in diameter, and live woody
stems less than 2 inches (5.1) in diameter were consumed.  The
Douglas-fir overstory was killed.  The mean heat flux, measured using
water-can integrating devices, was 200 calories per second for 45
seconds.


FIRE EFFECTS ON TARGET SPECIES :
Bristly black currant was killed by the fire.  Bristly black currant was
observed on the study site beginning in postfire year 2.  However, no
bristly black currant less than 18 inches in height was detected during
the 7 postfire years in 2- by 2-foot quadrats.  Density, height, and
crown volume for bristly black currant over 18 inches in height was
originally recorded using quarter-point sampling [79], but this
technique was eventually deemed inadequate because of low plant
densities.  Beginning in 1966 (postfire year 3), 0.04 acre (0.016 ha)
plots were sampled, both in the original quarter-point sampling area and
in three additional subplots located at lower, middle, and upper slope
sites; measurable quantities of bristly black currant occurred only on
the lower and upper slope subplots.  Bristly black currant over 18
inches in height was first recorded in postfire year 3, presumably
growing from seed in the first or second postfire year.  The following
data should be interpreted with caution because of very low sample
numbers for bristly black currant.

                                           Postfire year
                     
                           1      2      3      4      5      6     7

plants/1,000 sq ft
  original study area:     -      -      T      T      -     0.3   0.1
  subplots (lower slopes): *      *     0.2    0.2    1.0    1.3   1.8
  subplots (upper slopes): *      *     0.1    0.5    0.2    0.2   0.5

canopy cover (%)           
  original study area:     -      -      T     0.01    -    0.05    T

aerial crown volume 
  (cu ft/1,000 sq ft)   
  original study area:     -      -     0.1    0.1     -     1.1    T   
  subplots (lower slopes): *      *     0.2    0.4    2.6    7.4   4.4
  subplots (upper slopes): *      *     0.7    2.0    1.4    1.8   2.5

*Data were not collected


Height and crown volume were measured and averaged for the first four
bristly black currants on the burn to reach 18 inches in height.

                                           Postfire year

                           1      2      3      4      5      6     7

average height (ft)        -      -     1.7    1.6    1.5    2.4   1.9

Average volume (cu ft)     -      -     2.6    3.1    4.4   11.5   6.2

A wildfire site which burned in 1950 was located near the Neal Canyon
study site.  Twenty years after the wildfire, bristly black currant
averaged 2.6 plants per 1,000 square feet, 0.6 percent cover , and 12.2
cubic feet aerial crown volume per 1,000 square feet.  Based on the Neal
Canyon prescribed fire and the wildfire, Lyon [42] projects that bristly
black currant will reach prefire crown volumes 30 to 40 years after
fire.


FIRE MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS :
NO-ENTRY

More info on this topic.

More info for the term: phanerophyte

  
   Phanerophyte

More info for the terms: cover, forest, mesic, shrub

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 less than 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].

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

    60  Beech-sugar maple
   107  White spruce
   201  White spruce
   205  Mountain hemlock
   206  Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir
   207  Red fir
   208  Whitebark pine
   210  Interior Douglas-fir
   211  White fir
   212  Western larch
   213  Grand fir
   215  Western white pine
   218  Lodgepole pine
   221  Red alder
   222  Black cottonwood-willow
   223  Sitka spruce
   227  Western redcedar-western hemlock

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

   FRES11  Spruce-fir
   FRES18  Maple-beech-birch
   FRES19  Aspen-birch
   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES22  Western white pine
   FRES23  Fir-spruce
   FRES24  Hemlock-Sitka spruce
   FRES25  Larch
   FRES26  Lodgepole pine
   FRES28  Western hardwoods

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the term: forest

   K001  Spruce-cedar-hemlock forest
   K003  Silver fir-Douglas-fir forest
   K004  Fir-hemlock forest
   K007  Red fir forest
   K008  Lodgepole pine-subalpine forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K013  Cedar-hemlock-pine forest
   K014  Grand fir-Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce-fir forest
   K025  Alder-ash forest
   K093  Great Lakes spruce-fir forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce-fir forest
   K106  Northern hardwoods

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in association with the following Rangeland Cover Types (as classified by the Society for Range Management, SRM):

   422  Riparian

More info for the terms: low-severity fire, prescribed fire

Fire that burns the organic soil probably kills bristly black currant.
Noste and Bushey [47] report that fire that removes the organic soil
layer will likely kill the shallow root systems of most Ribes spp.
Bristly black currant was nearly absent from study sites after a severe
prescribed fire in central Idaho (see Fire Case Studies) [42].
Low-severity fire probably top-kills bristly black currant.

Bristly black currant seeds contained in the organic mantle are
destroyed by severe fire [44].  However, seeds buried in mineral soil
probably survive most fire.

Bristly black currant berries are eaten by rodents, bears, and birds
[38].  In southwestern Alberta grizzly bears feed on bristly black
currant berries in late summer and early autumn [31].  Elk, mule deer,
white-tailed deer, and mountain goats eat bristly black currant foliage
[11,18,55,58,71].  In Montana bristly black currant was 1 percent of elk
diet in early summer and 3 percent in late summer [18].

More info for the terms: fern, forest, series

Bristly black currant occurs in woods, forests, and shrublands.  It is a
common but not abundant understory species [16,27,32].

Bristly black currant occurs in the understory of subalpine forests in
Wyoming with gooseberry currant (Ribes montigenum), sidebells
wintergreen (Orthilia secunda), heartleaf arnica (Arnica cordifolia),
and fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) [9].

In the cedar (Thuja spp.)-hemlock (Tsuga spp.) zone of northwestern
British Columbia, bristly black currant occurs with devil's club
(Oplopanax horridus), leafy moss (Mnium spp.), oak fern (Gymnocarpium
dryopteris), Schreber's moss (Pleurozium schreberi), common ladyfern
(Athyrium filix-femina), and horsetail (Equisetum spp.) [28].  Bristly
black currant occurs in the oak fern, devil's club, horsetail, and
queencup beadlily (Clintonia uniflora) series of the wet, cool subboreal
spruce (Picea spp.) forest zone in British Columbia [32].

Bristly black currant occurs with Rocky Mountain maple (Acer glabrum),
Utah honeysuckle (Lonicera utahensis), blue huckleberry (Vaccinium
membranaceum), and western meadowrue (Thalictrum occidentale) in the
understory of a virgin grand fir (Abies grandis) forest in northern
Idaho [36].

In spruce forests in Alberta, bristly black currant occurs with other
mesophytic species including twinberry honeysuckle (Lonicera
involucrata), highbush cranberry (Viburnum edule), tall bluebells
(Mertensia paniculata), wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis), bluejoint
reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis), oak fern, stiff clubmoss
(Lycopodium amnotinum), and claspleaf twistedstalk (Streptopus
amplexifolius) [41].

Bristly black currant occurs in riparian woodlands and shrublands.  It
occurs in a thinleaf alder (Alnus incana ssp. tenuifolia) riparian
dominance type in east-central Oregon [50].  In the Klamath Mountains of
northern California, bristly black currant borders streams with thinleaf
alder, California mountain-ash (Sorbus californica), and Scouler willow
(Salix scouleriana), and it occurs in thickets with thinleaf alder,
Sitka alder (Alnus viridis ssp. sinuata), red-osier dogwood (Cornus
sericea), red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa ssp. pubens), and cascara
(Rhamnus purshiana) [56].

Clearcuts in the Olympic Mountains in Washington, dominated by
oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor) and thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus),
include common snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) and bristly black
currant [23].

More info for the term: shrub

Shrub

More info for the terms: association, cover, tree

Bristly black currant is an alternate host for white pine blister rust
(Cronartium ribicola) which infests five-needled pines.  Because of its
association with the rust, bristly black currant has been a target of
various eradication studies.  Bristly black currant is highly resistant
to chemical injury [48].  Efforts to eradicate Ribes spp. have been
unsuccessful and have not resulted in decreased rust infection.  Only a
few Ribes bushes per acre are sufficient to perpetuate blister rust [29].

Although bristly black currant establishes on scarified ground after
tree harvest, it does not impede conifer seedling establishment [61].

Grazing by wild ungulates prevents development of bristly black currant
in clearcuts.  Eleven years after clearcutting, burned and unburned
grazed sites averaged 0.3 percent cover bristly black currant.  Ungrazed
burned clearcuts averaged 4.6 percent cover and ungrazed unburned
clearcuts averaged 9.8 percent cover [19].

More info for the terms: fresh, fruit

Bristly black currant berries collected in the summer in northern
Ontario consisted of 79.68 percent moisture, 20 percent dry matter, 0.28
percent fat, 1.46 percent protein, and 5.66 percent soluble carbohydrate
based on fresh fruit weight.  Fresh bristly black currant fruit contains
slightly more than 30 kilocalories per 100 grams [69].

Nutritional values of bristly black currant berries collected in late
summer in southeastern Washington, based on dry weight, were 2.94 percent
protein, 4.09 percent lipid, 3.96 percent neutral detergent fiber, 4.56
percent ash, 0.282 percent calcium, 0.066 percent magnesium, 0.17
percent phosphorus, and 1.887 percent potassium [52].

Norton and others [46] analyzed the nutritional value of dried bristly
black currant berries stored for 1 year.  Traditional Native American
drying and storing methods were used.  One gram dry weight contained on
average 3.19 milligrams calcium, 0.05 milligram iron, 0.94 milligram
magnesium, 0.02 milligram zinc, and 3.33 milligrams ascorbic acid [46].

     AK  CA  CO  CT  ID  ME  MA  MI  MN  MT
     NH  OH  OR  PA  SD  UT  VT  VA  WA  WV
     WY  AB  BC  MB  NB  NF  NT  ON  PE  PQ
     SK  YT

Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest ate bristly black currant
berries in historic times [46].

Bristly black currant browse is moderately palatable to livestock, elk,
and deer [17,38].  The berries are edible but somewhat disagreeable
tasting [35,38,59].

More info on this topic.

More info for the term: fruit

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].

More info for the terms: adventitious, cover, duff, fire intensity, fire severity, forest, litter, root crown, seed, severity, top-kill, wildfire

Numerous secondary sources suggest that bristly black currant sprouts
from the root crown and rhizomes after top-kill by fire [7,12,22,43,
47,77].  However, primary documentation of bristly black currant
sprouting from the root crown or rhizomes after fire was not found in
the literature.

Bristly black currant was present in the postfire ravine vegetation 1
year after a mid-summer wildfire in western Montana.  Although the fire
was generally severe, some ravine sites did not burn severely because of
the higher moisture content of plant material and soil.  Bristly black
currant plants recovered quickly in low-severity burn patches; the
mechanism of recovery (sprouting from rootstocks, rhizomes, or
adventitious stem buds) was not reported.  Maximum bristly black currant
postfire canopy cover was 2.5 percent 1 year after fire and 6.3 percent
2 years after fire [37].

Bristly black currant colonizes burned sites via long-lived buried seed
and/or seed carried on to the site by animals [64].  Regeneration
success after fire depends on site conditions and fire severity.  Severe
fire substantially reduces or delays bristly black currant establishment
[42].  Bristly black currant seedlings were present on 1 of 18 burn
sites 1 year after the Sundance wildfire in northern Idaho.  The fire
consumed the overstory, litter and duff; fire intensity ranged from
3,400 to 22,500 British thermal units per second per foot [63].
According to Steele and Geier-Hayes [61], bristly black currant and
sticky currant are common on scarified portions of past pile-and-burn
sites but rare on severely burned areas.  In western Montana bristly
black currant was 25.6 percent less frequent on burned slash pile sites
than on adjacent unburned scarified clearcut sites.  Postfire age of
sampled burned sites averaged 8.8 years [70].

Optimal conditions for bristly black currant establishment may not occur
until several years after fire.  In broadcast-burned clearcuts in
north-central Idaho, bristly black currant occurred in only 1 of 10
microplots in 1-year-old burns but was found on seven of nine microplots
in 3-year-old burns [75].  Severe hot or dry soil conditions associated
with some burns may discourage immediate colonization by bristly black
currant.  Lyon [42] suggests that optimal environmental conditions for
bristly black currant establishment may not occur on some sites until
other vegetation is established.

Bristly black currant recovery was slow after prescribed broadcast fires
in clearcut western larch (Larix occidentalis)-Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga
menziesii) forests in northwestern Montana.  Bristly black currant
disappeared from the most severely burned site (E-8), but appeared
within 8 years on three sites on which it had not been present in the
prefire vegetation.  Bristly black currant pre- and postfire canopy
cover follows [62]:

                              Year since fire

Site    prefire     1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8   postfire
        % cover                                                   duff (cm)

N-6        -        -     -     1     1     1     -     -     -     7.0
N-8        -        -     -     -     -     1     -     1     3     6.0
E-8        1        -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -     6.6
S-2        1        -     -     -     -     -     1     -     -     *
W-3        -        -     -     -     -     -     -     -     1     4.5

*Duff depth was not reported for the S-2 burn site.

Literature which contains fire response information for Ribes spp. in
general should be viewed with caution because of substantial differences
between co-occurring species.  In the above-mentioned study [62], sticky
currant rapidly colonized some burned sites, reaching a maximum canopy
cover of 11 percent after 4 years on a site from which it was absent
before fire [62].  Lyon [42] also documented rapid sticky currant
recovery after fire (see Fire Case Studies).  Mueggler [45] combined Ribes
spp. when he reported they were considerably more frequent on burn sites
than unburned sites in grand fir and western redcedar (Thuja plicata)
forest associations in northern Idaho.  Bristly black currant and sticky
currant co-occur in these forests [14], and it is possible that only
sticky currant was doing well on burned sites in the first several
postfire years.

More info for the terms: fire regime, ground residual colonizer, secondary colonizer, seed

   Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)
   Secondary colonizer - off-site seed


FIRE REGIMES : Find fire regime information for the plant communities in
which this species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under "Find FIRE REGIMES".

More info for the terms: adventitious, root crown, scarification, seed, stratification

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 long-term 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.

More info on this topic.

This species can be found in the following regions of the western United States (according to the Bureau of Land Management classification of Physiographic Regions of the western United States):

    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   10  Wyoming Basin
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   15  Black Hills Uplift
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands

Summer/severe

The mountainous study site is at 6,500 feet (1,980 m) elevation.  Annual
precipitation is from 14 to 17 inches (360-430 mm), most occurring in the
winter as snow.  The slope averages 64 percent and the aspect is 10 to
20 degrees.  The soils are rocky, averaging 50 percent gravel.

More info on this topic.

More info for the terms: cover, eruption, habitat type, mesic

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 less than 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].

 

The currently accepted scientific name for bristly black currant is
Ribes lacustre (Pers.) Poir. (Grossulariaceae) [25,33,34,35,59]. There
are no currently accepted infrataxa.

Ribes lacustre (Pers.) Poir. in lyam. Encyc
Suppl. 2 : 56. 1812.
Ribes oxyacanihoides lacustre Pers. Syn. PI. 1 : 252. 1805. Ribes grossularioides Michx.; Steud. Nom. Bot. 691. 1821. Ribes echinaium Dougl. Trans. Hort. Soc. London 7 : 517. 1830. Ribes lacustre parvuliim A. Gray, Bot. Calif. 1 : 206. 1876. Ribes parvulum Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 2 : 203. 1900.
Spines slender, weak, usually clustered. Branches usually densely bristly ; petioles slender, pubescent; leaves nearly orbicular, thin, smooth or nearly so, deeply 5-7-lobed,
3-5 cm. wide, the lobes acutish, incised-dentate ; flowers green or purplish; pedicels slender, about 4 mm. long ; hypanthium crateriform ; sepals short, broad, spreading ; stamens very short, not exserted ; berry about 6-10 mm. in diameter, purple-black, covered with weak gland-tipped bristles.
Type locality : Lake Mistassini (Canada).
Distribution: Newfoundland to Alaska, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,-and Michigan, and in the mountains to Colorado, Utah, and California.

The shrub Ribes lacustre is known by the common names prickly currant, black swamp gooseberry, and black gooseberry. It is widely distributed in North America.