Wednesday 13 January 2016

botany - Streamside plant identification - Oregon


This is in the western cascades forest in Oregon. Leaves are at the ends of branches only, lives mostly in slightly muddy areas next to streams. Produces small black berries.


https://i.imgur.com/sS1cOiL.jpg


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https://i.imgur.com/kUHeob2.jpg



Answer



It's a plant in the family Ribes, which includes currants.


If it stinks when you crush the leaves, it is probably Stink Currant, or Ribes bracteosum, a plant found in the Pacific Northwest.




Leaves are large, like maple leaves, sparsely hairy to smooth, with 5 to 7 lobes, stinky when crushed. Flowers are numerous on mostly erect clusters; with white petals and brownish-purple to greenish-white calyces. Berries are blue-black with a whitish bloom.



enter image description here


The leaf and berry are a good match. There are ~150 species, so it's a bit difficult.


It could also be Ribes acerifolium, or Maple-Leaved Currant.



Shrub with spreading branches but no bristles. Leaves maple-like, 1–3 in. across, with 5–7 rounded, finely toothed lobes. Hanging stem of 8–12 greenish flowers, each less than 1/3 in. across with tiny red petals and stamen filaments broad at base. Berry black, coated with bluish powder. Grows from mid elevations to treeline in Cascade and Olympic mountains.



enter image description here



I could not find a photograph that was not copyrighted. The flower color was pinkish to brownish.


It's not a perfect identification, but it's closer than 'in the ballpark'. If you google "Ribes western Cascades", you'll see what I mean. :)


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