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Wind Cave National Park
Shrubs - Golden Currant
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| NPS Photo by Jim Pisarowicz | | Golden Currant - Ribes odoratum |
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Shrub with lobed, coarsely toothed leaves that forms thickets reaching 5 feet tall. Yellow flowers provide its name, though the fruit produced ripens to purple-black in June. Fruits were harvested by Plains Indians for use in preparing pemmican, a winter staple food which combined fruit, meat (usually bison, elk, or deer) and fat. Also known as “buffalo currant” for this reason. The dark juice of crushed currant skins mixed with clay was used as decorative body paint by some tribes.
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Did You Know?
Porcupine babies are called porcupettes. When they are born they have 15,000 quills. Porcupettes are born in the spring and, lucky for mom, the quills are soft. They can climb trees within an hour of birth.
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Last Updated: May 15, 2007 at 18:28 EST |
