Ribes orientale Desf.

A polygamo-dioecious shrub, 1-2 m tall. Twigs pubescent, glandular and sticky. Leaves 1-3 cm long, 2-5.5 cm broad, orbicular or reniform, obscurely 3-5-lobed; lobes inciso-crenate, obtuse, dorsally covered with stiff glandular hairs, basal nerves 3-5 ; petioles 0.7-3 cm long, pubescent and gandular. Male racemes 2-5 cm long, 15-30-flowered; bracts linear-lanceolate, 2-3 mm long, margin glandular ciliate. Flowers small, c. 5 mm long, greenish or yellowish. Calyx tube 2 mm long, glandular, scarcely produced above the ovary, lobes ovate. Petals spathulate. Stamens as long as the petals. Style 2-3 fid. Female racemes 1-2.2 cm long, 5-15-flowered. Female flowers similar, c. 3 mm long. Berries deep red, slightly pubescent and glandular, c. 6 mm in diameter.

Shrubs usually dioecious, 0.5-2 m tall, vegetative parts pubescent, sticky glandular and/or shortly stalked glandular. Branchlets stout, unarmed. Buds reddish brown, ovoid to oblong, 5-6 mm, apex obtuse or acute. Petiole 1-2(-3) cm; leaf blade suborbicular to reniform-orbicular, 1-3(-4) cm, base truncate to shallowly cordate; lobes 3-5, margin irregularly coarsely dentate or doubly dentate, apex obtuse or acute; terminal lobe subequaling lateral ones. Inflorescences and most flower parts pubescent and glandular pubescent; male racemes erect, 2-5 cm, 15-30-flowered, female ones 2-3 cm, 5-15-flowered, to 4 cm in fruit; bracts lanceolate to elliptic, 5-9 mm, 1-veined. Flowers rarely bisexual; pedicel 2-3 mm. Calyx purple to purplish brown; tube broadly saucer-shaped to rotate, 1-2 mm; lobes erect, ovate to subligulate, 2-2.5 mm, usually obscurely 3-veined. Petals subflabellate to subspatulate, 0.5-1 mm, ± pubescent. Stamens slightly longer than petals. Ovary ovoid. Style 2-lobed. Fruit red to purple, globose, 0.7-0.9 cm, pubescent and shortly stalked glandular. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jul-Aug.

S.E. Europe, W. & C. Asia, Altai, Himalaya (Kashmir, Nepal, Bhutan), Tibet, Mongolia, W. China.

Distribution: Common in the arid regions of Himalayas from 2300-3700 m. alt. and westwards through S.W. Asia to Greece.

W Sichuan, Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Nepal, Russia; SW Asia, SE Europe].

Fl. Per.: April-June.

Forests, forest margins, rock crevices, roadsides; 2100-4900 m.

Ribes leptostachyum Decaisne; R. punctatum Lindley (1810), not Ruiz & Pavón (1802).