Wild blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum L.) is a small woody shrub with distribution from temperate parts of northern and central Europe to northern Asia. In the Nordic region, it is native in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. It grows in streamside and seaside thickets, riverbanks, scrub and wet forests with damp and fertile soils.

Blackcurrant varieties are widely cultivated both commercially and in home gardens for the edible berries. The cultivated plants produce significantly more berries than the wild ones. Bunches of berries develop in the summer and are harvested by hand or machine. The berries have a high vitamin C content. They can be eaten either raw or cooked. The blackcurrant leaves are used for tea and herbal medicine. Blackcurrants are also grown commercially for the juice market. Majority, 99 %, of the world’s production is in Europe.

Wild Ribes nigrum plants are closely related to cultivated brackcurrants. They can be used in breeding resistance into cultivated varieties, such as winter hardiness and disease resistance. Blackcurrants have been cultivated in northern Europe for more 400 years starting from Germany and spreading from there to other parts of Europe. The first cultivated blackcurrants were bushes transplanted from the wild. Breeding of cultivated varieties started in the 19th century in UK. Those varieties were not fully winter hardy and local varieties were later developed in the Nordic countries for local needs. Wild blackcurrants also belong to the cultivated gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa L.) genepool. Crosses between blackcurrants and gooseberries have resulted in hybrid species ‘Jostaberry’ (R x nidigrolaria) and ‘Jochelbeere’ (Ribes × culverwellii). These produce edible black berries smaller than gooseberry and larger than blackcurrant. The taste is between the two species. These hybrids are however not common in cultivation as they are not so well suited for mechanical harvesting.

Text and photo: Heli Fitzgerald

SOURCES:
Aaltonen, M., Antonius, K., Hietaranta, T., Karhu, S., H., Kivijärvi, P., A., Sahramaa, M., Tahvonen, R. ja Uosukainen, M. (2006). Suomen kansallisten kasvigeenivarojen pitkäaikaissäilytysohjeet, Hedelmä- ja marjakasvit. Maa- ja elintarviketalous 89, MTT, Jokioinen.

Vagiri, M. (2012). Blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum L.) – an insight into a crop, a synopsis of a PhD study. Paper at the Faculty of Landscape Planning, Horticulture and Agricultural Science, Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Swedish University of Agricultural Science.

Greene, S.L., Williams, K.A., C.K., Kantar, M.B., Marek, L.F. (2019) North American Crop Wild Relatives, Volume 2: Important Species. Springer.