Swamp current aka, skunk current; a widespread wild current with landscape-values

Swamp current climbing Bigleaf Maple
Swamp current climbing Bigleaf Maple

Swamp current is the prefered popular name on the Olympic Peninsula of maritime west-coast North America.  More-widely, it is typically called skunk current.  Ribes glandulosum.  But it grows especially well on slurpy-wet ground; usually on slopes, and maybe not ‘in’ swampiness, but conspicuously on elevated stumps & hummocks, in swamp-habitat.This current species is vine-like and sprawling, often crudely climbing onto supports, and threading its way to the top of surrounding brush.  It the winter it almost disappears (which can work well, with an evergreen ground-cover; or to increase general light-levels), but in spring, summer and fall it puts on a series of changing ‘shows’.

Swamp current mound on cedar stump
Swamp current mound on cedar stump

In addition to having  a nice faux-climbing form, it mounds and hangs well, given the right platform or setting.  It largely self-manages a controlled drapery-effect, with the canes tipping-up after descending a given distance.  The dimensions, scale and density depend mainly on the lighting.

The fruit is a pendulous cluster, strongly reminiscent of an open, very sparse grape-cluster.  The berries are markedly less acid than other currents, and are of good size, but they do have the characteristic skunkiness of the overall plant.  Although generally off-putting, the smell, odor & flavor are of the same general family as that of Muscatine grapes (named for their musky odor) – especially the original wild kinds.  A little too rank & rough to be appealing, the scent-properties could probably be toned-down, as they were with Muscatine.  The fruit is not as powerfully scented as other plant-parts, but it’s still enough to cause neophytes to spit.

Swamp current stem-form and flowers
Swamp current stem-form and flowers

The general mildness of swamp/skunk currents is an asset.  Most currents and gooseberries (though not all) are a little too over-the-top in the flavor & acidity department.   Nobody picks these berries for fruit, but they do have potential.

 

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