Ribes amarum McClatchie
Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Ribes amarum McClatchie: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Mc Clatchie.
107 photographs › At a glance
- Jan, shaded
- Feb, shaded
- Mar, shaded
- Apr
- May
- Jun, under 5 mm of rain
- Jul, under 5 mm of rain
- Aug, under 5 mm of rain
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec, shaded
Summary
Ribes amarum is a species of currant known by the common name bitter gooseberry. It is endemic to California, where it is known from mountains, foothills, and canyons. Its habitat includes Chaparral.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ribes amarum", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Ribes
Ribes is a genus of approximately 200 known species of flowering plants, predominantly native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Ribes is the sole genus in the plant family Grossulariaceae. The genus includes species commonly referred to as redcurrants, blackcurrants, whitecurrants, and gooseberries. More on Wikipedia ›
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ribes", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (449 mm of 602 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.6 °C against a yearly mean of 14.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.
Rain
602 mm in the median year at the habitat, 449 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 133 mm, driest month July at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 448 mm to 1,168 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 608 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 602 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 53 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -0.7 °C, the absolute minimum -5.8 °C, 301 frost nights in 44 years, 6.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 3.5 °C in January and December (across the grid cells of the range 0.2 °C to 9.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.1 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 56% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +262 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 14 °C in Jan and Dec to 29 °C in Jul and Aug; mean nightly low from 4 °C in Jan, Feb and Dec to 17 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 3 months in a row that tie for it. 602 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 110 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -5.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 14 / 11–17 | 15 / 12–17 | 16 / 14–19 | 19 / 15–21 | 22 / 18–25 | 26 / 20–29 | 29 / 22–32 | 29 / 22–32 | 27 / 22–30 | 23 / 19–25 | 18 / 14–20 | 14 / 10–17 |
| Night °C | 4 / 0–9 | 4 / 1–10 | 6 / 2–10 | 8 / 4–11 | 11 / 8–13 | 14 / 11–15 | 16 / 14–18 | 17 / 14–18 | 15 / 12–17 | 11 / 8–15 | 7 / 3–12 | 4 / 0–9 |
| Rain mm | 128 / 91–216 | 133 / 98–197 | 94 / 67–170 | 45 / 29–96 | 13 / 9–47 | 4 / 2–15 | 1 / 1–5 | 2 / 1–6 | 8 / 4–17 | 27 / 21–64 | 53 / 41–125 | 94 / 65–200 |
| DLI | 20 / 16–23 | 25 / 22–28 | 35 / 31–37 | 44 / 40–45 | 50 / 47–51 | 53 / 52–54 | 52 / 51–53 | 48 / 47–49 | 40 / 38–42 | 31 / 28–34 | 23 / 18–25 | 18 / 14–21 |
| RH % | 53 / 49–57 | 55 / 52–59 | 56 / 53–59 | 54 / 51–58 | 53 / 49–59 | 51 / 44–58 | 49 / 43–57 | 49 / 43–56 | 49 / 45–56 | 50 / 47–55 | 51 / 47–56 | 51 / 48–57 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) George Williams, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Stephanomeria virgata Rod wirelettuce Photo: CC0, author not stated
Dendromecon rigida Tree poppy Photo: CC BY, Mike Butler
Palmerella debilis Dunn's Lobelia Photo: CC BY, Adam J. Searcy
Scutellaria tuberosa Danny's skullcap Photo: CC BY, Mike Butler
Lilium humboldtii Humboldt lily Photo: CC0, author not stated
Arctostaphylos glandulosa Eastwood's manzanita Photo: CC BY, Konshau DumanOther Ribes 77 in the reference
Ribes aciculare Grossulariaceae Photo: CC BY, K.P.
Ribes alpestre Grossulariaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Christian Hummert (Ixitixel)
Ribes alpinum Mountain currant Photo: CC0, author not stated
Ribes americanum Wild black currant Photo: CC BY, Sam Turner
Ribes aureum Golden currant Photo: CC0, author not stated
Ribes biebersteinii Grossulariaceae Photo: CC BY, Екатерина Кравцова
Ribes bracteosum Stink currant Photo: CC BY, Moe Meikle
Ribes burejense Stinky black currant Photo: CC BY, Jane Charlen
Ribes californicum Hillside gooseberry Photo: CC BY, jayjt
Ribes cereum Wax currant Photo: CC0, author not stated
Ribes ciliatum Grossulariaceae Photo: CC BY, nebrooks
Ribes cucullatum Grossulariaceae Photo: CC BY, Cody Hinchliff all 78 ›Names & registers
Also known as Grossularia amara; Ribes amarum var. amarum; Ribes amarum var. hoffmannii; Ribes anarum; Ribes hesperium var. amarum and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 7947023 is Ribes amarum Mc Clatchie; the page links Kew's Ribes amarum McClatchie, and the name is cited as Kew cites itgbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 23 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (23 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.00_-121.250, lapse-corrected +262 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its POWO identifier 792557-1 is Kew's for Ribes amarum McClatchiewikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 35 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.