WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

The hairy stems of this 2–6-foot tall shrub have 1–3 spines at the nodes as well as bristles along the stem. Note the glandular-hairy leaves, cup-shaped (not tubular), pinkish-red flowers, and bright-red berries with scattered black hairs.

FLOWERS: May–July. Clusters of 3–8 pinkish-red, cup-shaped  flowers with long glandular hairs; 5 spreading petal-like sepals and 5 smaller, erect interior petals. Fruit a round, red-orange berry to 3/8-inch diameter (10 mm) with black, short-stalked glandular hairs; edible, tasty.

LEAVES: Alternate or crowded whorl-like on short branchlets, with long stems (petioles). Blades 5/8–1 3/8-inches wide (15–35 mm), deeply cut into 3–5 irregular lobes, margins with teeth, surfaces covered with sticky glandular hairs.

HABITAT: Gravelly loam soils, stream sides, forests openings, meadows; Douglas fir, aspen, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 8,000–12,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, UT; widespread in Rocky Mts. and westward.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 12 species of Ribes in NM, 4 may have nodal spines plus stem bristles, 3 of those with cup-shaped (not tubular) flowers. Reliable ID relies on flowers and fruit. Orange Gooseberry, R. pinetorum, in the southern and western mountains of NM, has only nodal spines (no stem bristles) and red berries covered with stout prickles.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in NM mountains (apparently absent in Sandia and Manzano mts.) at mid- to high–elevation, moist habitats: Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Harding, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos.