Ribes sanguineum Pursh, Flowering Currant
Account Summary
Introduction, neophyte, a rare, naturalised garden escape.
3 June 1993; EHS Habitat Survey Team; 'Wood 3' at Knockninny hill.
March to June.
Growth form and preferred habitats
There are just nine records for this now rather over-commonly planted, large (up to 4 m), decorative, pink- (or less commonly white) flowered garden shrub from the wild (or non-garden sites) in this survey, all dating from the post-1992 period. This fact tells us less than it might, since we know that Meikle and his co-workers and, indeed, originally Robert Northridge and the current writer, disdained recording most garden escapes. Meikle and company also ignored most agricultural and horticultural weeds during their botanical outings around Fermanagh.
As listed above, the first record was made in or on the margin of the limestone woodland on Knockninny in 1993. It now appears thinly scattered in nine tetrads in lowland Fermanagh, both near and remote from houses, in hedges, woods, roadside verges and on waste ground. In the latter two situations, it may have been deliberately dumped with other garden waste. It undoubtedly remains under-recorded to some extent.
Origin and introduction
Flowering Currant was introduced to gardens in B & I from NW America by the famous Scottish plant collector David Douglas in 1826 (J.M. Croft, in: Preston et al. 2002). It was first recorded in the wild in 1916, and since it tends to occur as isolated shrubs and produces a white-bloomed, blue-black fruit, it undoubtedly is often bird sown in the variety of habitats listed above, near to where the vector perches!
Fermanagh occurrence
The details of the later eight Fermanagh records are as follows: near an old house, E of Gubbaroe Point, Lower Lough Erne, 18 April 1998, RHN; Clonelly, NW of Kesh, 17 March 1999, HJN & RHN; Armagh Manor, possibly planted, 9 April 1999, RSF & RHN. The last three are dated only 1987-99 and they are: Tullyweel, near Creevehill House, W of Fivemiletown, I. McNeill & D. McNeill; hedgerow at Knockroe, NE of Ederny, I. McNeill; Lurganboy, 7 km E of Kesh, I. McNeill; Roogagh Bridge, 28 July 2004, RHN & HJN; and Glen Lodge, 4 August 2007, I. McNeill.
British and Irish occurrence
R. sanguineum is widespread but patchily distributed in lowland parts of both B & I, common in urban areas with higher concentrations of gardens, and possibly more frequent in the N & W (Clement & Foster 1994). As is the case with all Ribes species, it appears from the hectad map in the New Atlas to be more commonly and widely recorded in NI than in the RoI, although Reynolds (Cat Alien Pl Ir) lists stations from eight VCs south of the border with NI. Again, this is very probably an artefact resulting from the reluctance of older or past recorders to list and give credence to mere garden escapes.
Threats
None.