Meriweather Lewis wrote in his journal that Sacagawea “found & brought me a bush Something like the Current, which She Said bore a delicious froot and that great quantities grew on the Rocky Mountains, this Shrub was in bloom has a yellow flower with a deep Cup, the froot when ripe is yellow and hangs in bunches like Cheries, Some of those berries yet remained on the bushes.” The plant he was describing was then first collected in the Three Forks Area of Gallatin County Montana on July 29, 1805. As it happens I lived about thirty minutes from that site for five years while my two daughters attended college at MSU in Bozeman. That is where I first saw this impressive plant myself! That plant of course is the Ribes Aureum or the common name Golden Currant. It is one of native plants we offer and for me, brings back memories of my own past and heralds thoughts of a true pioneer of the admiration of plants in their native setting. For me every year at this time I am reminded of the beauty and rugged versitility of this plant as it blooms just down the road from the nursery, in masses on the hillsides along Currant Creek! Interesting how everything on life’s journey is connected! And when you plant your Ribes Aureum you can start memories of your own and know that you are perpetuating the only plant specimen that survived from that Montana 1805 collection, as all the other specimens collected were destroyed later that year! Happy Spring! Gary Thank You to Kathy Lloyd, Montana Native Plant Society
ON APRIL 30TH 1805……….
