About Ribes sericeum Eastw.
Ribes sericeum Eastw. is a species of currant, commonly called Lucia gooseberry or Santa Lucia gooseberry. Its species epithet sericeum means "of silk". This plant is endemic to California, and is only found in the Santa Lucia Mountains along the Central Coast, plus one additional isolated population in Santa Barbara County. It grows on streambanks in forest and scrub habitat. It is an erect shrub that reaches 1 to 2 meters (40 to 80 inches) in height. Its stems are densely hairy, and covered in prickles and glandular bristles. Each node along the stem bears three spines, which may grow longer than 1 centimeter (0.4 inch). Its leaves grow up to 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) long, and are divided into several toothed lobes. The leaves are hairy and glandular, particularly on their undersides. The inflorescence is either a single solitary flower, or a short raceme of 2 or 3 flowers. Each flower has five reflexed sepals that are green with red tints, or solid red, surrounding a tube-shaped ring of smaller whitish petals. The fruit is a purple berry up to 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) long, covered in bristles.
