Species
+

Ribes rubrum L.

Common Currant, Cultivated Currant, European red currant, Garden Currant

Climate known 54 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

The redcurrant or red currant is a member of the genus Ribes in the family Grossulariaceae. It is native to western Europe. The species is widely cultivated and has escaped into the wild in many regions.

Text from Wikipedia, “Redcurrant”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ribes

Ribes is a genus of approximately 200 known species of flowering plants, predominantly native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Ribes is the sole genus in the plant family Grossulariaceae. The genus includes species commonly referred to as redcurrants, blackcurrants, whitecurrants, and gooseberries. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ribes”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Grossulariaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Great Britain, Belgium, Germany +3
Wild records
481 in range· 46 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
868mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 81 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 868 mm a year, wettest July at 81 mm, driest April at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as ? silvestre Lam.; Grossularia rubra (L.) Scop.; Ribes acerifolium K.Koch; Ribes acidum Ehrh.; Ribes acidum Turcz. ex Steud. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (626 mm of 868 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 14.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 868 mm a year, wettest July at 81 mm, driest April at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

868 mm a year at the habitat, 626 mm of it June to January. Wettest month July at 81 mm, driest April at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 768 mm to 939 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -8.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.8 °C, the absolute minimum -17.6 °C, about 62 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.4 °C in February (across the envelope cells -0.3 °C to 1.8 °C), warmest day 21.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 0 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 868 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 466 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost28.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 4–33RH 60–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 466 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 5–66 / 5–79 / 8–1013 / 11–1417 / 15–1820 / 17–2022 / 20–2322 / 20–2218 / 17–1914 / 13–159 / 8–106 / 5–7
Night °C1 / -0–20 / -0–23 / 2–45 / 4–69 / 8–911 / 11–1214 / 13–1514 / 13–1511 / 10–138 / 7–104 / 4–61 / 1–3
Rain mm77 / 62–8460 / 49–6569 / 57–7547 / 42–5766 / 59–7273 / 64–8181 / 71–8977 / 68–9076 / 64–9180 / 70–9881 / 65–9481 / 68–89
DLI5 / 5–610 / 9–1117 / 16–1827 / 26–2832 / 32–3433 / 33–3632 / 32–3528 / 27–3019 / 18–2011 / 11–126 / 5–74 / 3–5
RH %68 / 67–6965 / 64–6663 / 62–6460 / 59–6260 / 59–6261 / 59–6361 / 59–6361 / 60–6363 / 62–6465 / 64–6668 / 66–6969 / 67–70

Each figure is the median across the 466 grid cells holding the 481 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 760:3710 (51.975, 5.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 466 distinct grid cells holding the 481 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 760:3710 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 52.00_5.625, lapse-corrected +3 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 18 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGreat Britain, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, Bulgaria, Italy, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Manchuria, Japan, Korea, West Himalaya, Myanmar, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker52.259, 4.521 · in the densest population, 320 records (67% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 481 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 46 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 468 km away. 58 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 481 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ribes rubrumRibes rubrumRibes rubrumRibes rubrumRibes rubrumRibes rubrumRibes rubrumRibes rubrum

Photographs: (c) Jason Grant, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Gavin Slater, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Daniel Cahen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ribes rubrum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Characterization of Anthocyanins and Proanthocyanidins in Some Cultivars ofRibes,Aronia, andSambucusand Their Antioxidant Capacity
Xianli Wu, Liwei Gu, Ronald L. Prior, Steve Mckay (2004) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Polyphenols, Anthocyanins, Ascorbic Acid, and Radical Scavenging Activity of Rubus, Ribes, and Aronia
Stefania Benvenuti, Federica Pellati, Margherita Melegari, Davide Bertelli (2004) · Journal of Food Science
Separation, Characterization and Quantification of Phenolic Compounds in Blueberries and Red and Black Currants by HPLC−DAD−ESI-MSn
Verka Gavrilova, Marina Kajdžanoska, Viktor Gjamovski, Марина Стефова (2011) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Characterization of Phenolic Profiles of Northern European Berries by Capillary Electrophoresis and Determination of their Antioxidant Activity
Sille Ehala, Merike Vaher, Mihkel Kaljurand (2005) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Activity of Polyphenolic Crude Extracts as Scavangers of Superoxide Radicals and Inhibitors of Xanthine Oxidase
Luca Costantino, A Albasini, Guilio Rastelli, Stefania Benvenuti (1992) · Planta Medica
Leaf Area Estimation Model for Small Fruits from Linear Measurements
C. Fallovo, V. Cristofori, Emilio Mendoza de-Gyves, Carlos Mario Rivera (2008) · HortScience
Temperature response rates from long-term phenological records
Annette Menzel, Nicole Estrella, A Testka (2005) · Climate Research
Sensory-Guided Decomposition of Red Currant Juice (Ribes rubrum) and Structure Determination of Key Astringent Compounds
Bernd Schwarz, Thomas Hofmann (2007) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ribes 6 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.