A deciduous shrub 4 to 6 ft high, armed with spines in pairs 1⁄8 to 1⁄5 in. long, or sometimes unarmed; young shoots not downy. Leaves obovate or rounded, often three-lobed, the lobes coarsely toothed, 3⁄4 to 2 in. wide, the base ordinarily wedge-shaped but sometimes rounded, quite glabrous; stalk 1⁄4 to 5⁄8 in. long, more or less furnished with bristles. Flowers unisexual, the sexes on different plants. Males yellowish, in erect glandular racemes. Fruits roundish oval, about as big as a red currant, glabrous, scarlet-red.
Native of Siberia, Manchuria, etc.; introduced in 1781. This shrub, which has no particular merit, resembles R. alpinum in the plants being one-sexed, but differs in having prickles, and in the markedly wedge-shaped leaves. In spite of its prickles, it is undoubtedly a currant of the subgenus Berisia and does not resemble the gooseberries (subgenus Grossularia) in any other respect.