Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Alpine currant is rated fire resistant overall, but one eastern U.S.
plant selector rates it At Risk.
FireSmart BC calls it a FireSmart-approved fire-resistant plant while flagging it as needing more research. Michigan State University Extension considers green mound alpine currant wildfire resistant and recommends it for Michigan’s climate. Alaska’s forestry program says Ribes alpinum may be used in firewise landscapes if it is placed and maintained appropriately.
Alpine currant scores 3, or At Risk, on the four-step scale used by the USDA Forest Service and state Firewise programs; the endpoints are Firewise at 1 and Not Firewise at 4. That rating does not match the three favorable recommendations, but it is also one step short of the scale’s Not Firewise category. The findings therefore lean toward fire resistance without offering an unqualified endorsement.
Alpine currant is a shrub in the Grossulariaceae family. It reaches about three feet at maturity in full sun and is hardy to USDA zone 4a. For a homeowner choosing near a house, the fairest reading is qualified approval: alpine currant has support from several firewise programs, but FireSmart BC still calls for more research, and Alaska’s recommendation depends on appropriate placement and maintenance.
Form
shrub
Mature height
~3 ft
Light
Full sun
Rated in
Alaska; British Columbia; Michigan / Great Lakes; eastern US
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Alaska Division of Forestry opens with the wildfire threat to Alaskans and publishes Alaska firewise-landscape examples. FireApproved publishes 58 exact source owners from its 60 taxon entries and holds the taxon-free fern label. State publication scope does not establish suitability for every Alaska climate, site, or home-ignition-zone placement.
Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in DC, DE, MD, MI, NJ, OH, PA, WV.
Native range
Introduced / established
1 sourced range or established record. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
Documented range 2–7.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source prints 4 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Ribes alpinum · exact match.
Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.
Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
2–7 explicit range · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Ribes alpinum · exact match.
Source location: Table 1, shrub row.
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 2 — 5–10 ft from the structure; maintained lawn or fuel breaks, with easily ignited evergreens avoided [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (mid-scale rating)
Protect Your Home from Wildfire: Shrubs [Alaska DNR brochure sections] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
