Plants 0.5-1 m. Stems reclining or sprawling to ± strongly ascending, sparingly pubescent and glandular, sometimes gla-brescent; spines at nodes absent; prickles on internodes absent. Leaves: petiole 3-7 cm; glabrous or sparsely glandular; blade pentangular, 5-7-lobed, cleft nearly to midrib, 3-8 cm, base cordate, surfaces glabrous or pubescent along veins abaxially, lobes deltate, margins serrate or 2 times serrate, apex acute. Inflorescences erect or ascending, 6-15-flowered racemes, 3-5 cm, axis stipitate-glandular, flowers evenly spaced. Pedicels jointed, 2-7 mm, pubescent and stipitate-glandular; bracts linear, 1-2 mm, stipitate-glandular. Flowers: hypanthium greenish white, deeply saucer-shaped, 0.7-1 mm, glabrous or sparsely hairy, sometimes stipitate-glandular; sepals not overlapping, spreading, white to pink, oblong-obovate from rounded sinuses, 1.5-2.5 mm; petals widely separated, erect, pinkish, cuneate to flabellate, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 0.5-1.5 mm; nectary disc prominent, yellowish, flat, not angled, covering most of ovary; stamens as long as or slightly longer than petals; filaments linear, 1.5 mm, glabrous; anthers cream or dark pink, ovate, 0.3-0.5 mm, apex shallowly notched; ovary glandular-bristly; styles connate 1/4 their lengths, 1.5 mm, glabrous, with few glands at base. Berries palatable or unpalatable, dark red, ovoid, 6-8 mm, glandular-bristly. Flowering May-Jun. Conifer and conifer-hardwood swamps, wet woods, spruce-fir forests, montane thickets, krummholz, seeps, boulder fields, clearings, roadsides; 0-2100 m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Conn., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis. Ribes glandulosum herbage has a skunklike odor. The glands are dark pink atop stalks as long as 1 mm. The flowers have stamens with pinkish filaments.