Chaparral Currant               ri-BEEZ mal-VAY-see-um

• Broadleaf deciduous (usually), multi-stemmed shrub, to about 5 ft (1.5 m) tall and wide, stems lack nodal spines.  Leaves simple, alternate, thin, 3 lobed, blade about 20-50 mm, margin double toothed, dull green, densely hairy and glandular, generally found clustered on short, lateral branchlets.  Flowers small, pink to purple, 10-25 per pendant cluster.  Fruit about 6 mm, red to purple.
• Sun, drought resistant, a tough shrub.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 5      Native to California, the Sierra Nevada foothills and the slopes of the Coast Range, and south into northern Baja, California (Mexico).
• Two varieties of R. malvaceum are recognized: R. m. var. malvaceum and R. m. var. viridifolium.
• malvaceum: mallow-like, reference to the leaves.