An unarmed shrub up to 12 ft high; young shoots glabrous. Leaves 3 to 51⁄2 in. long and wide, with three or five acute or acuminate lobes; petioles up to 41⁄2 in. long. Racemes pendulous, 12 to 18 in. long, sparsely set with greenish or reddish tubular-campanulate flowers on pedicels about 1⁄4 in. long. Stamens and styles exserted. Fruits black, of about the size of a black currant, said to be of good flavour, but very thinly disposed along the main-stalk.
Wilson introduced this extraordinary currant in 1908 from W. China, where it had originally been discovered by the Abbé David. The one character that distinguishes it from its relatives is its remarkable tassel-like racemes more than 1 ft long. It is quite hardy, but uncommon in this country. A plant which grew originally in the collection of Janczewski, the monographer of Ribes, has attained a height of 12 ft in the Kornik Arboretum, Poland; it produces its racemes freely there, but does not fruit (Arb. Kornickie, Year Book No. 10 (1965), p. 60).