Flower:

Arching to dangling clusters of 6 to 15 stalked flowers arising from leaf axils. Flowers are about ¼ inch across, saucer-shaped with 5 inconspicuous, erect, stubby pink to purplish petals. Alternating with the petals are 5 stamens nearly as long as the petals with creamy colored, heart-shaped tips (anthers). The calyx cupping the flower is purplish or greenish, hairless and not glandular, with 5 sepal lobes that are rather petal-like, much larger and showier than the actual petals. Sepals are pink to purplish or greenish, broadly wedge-shaped and typically rolled under. Between the calyx and flower stalk is a smooth, green ovary.

At the base of the flower stalk is a short, broad bract sparsely covered in glandular hairs. Flower stalks are less than ¼ inch long, hairless or minutely hairy, with scattered short, glandular hairs.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are 1½ to 3½ inches long, 2 to 4 inches wide, coarsely toothed, straight to heart-shaped at the base, with 3 to 5 primary lobes that may be again shallowly lobed. Veins are prominent and radiate from the base.

The upper surface is sparsely hairy, the lower variously covered in white hairs, more densely so along major veins and may become smooth with age. Leaf stalks are 1 to 2½ inches long, minutely hairy with scattered short, glandular hairs. 

New twigs are green, with a mix of glandular and non-glandular hairs, becoming smooth and reddish brown, the thin outer layer peeling away. Older stems are brownish to gray and lack spines or prickles. Stems are erect, ascending, or trailing, rooting at the nodes and stem tips.

Fruit:

Fruit is a shiny, smooth, bright red berry ¼ to 3/8 inch in diameter.

Notes:

The Ribes species consist of both gooseberries and currants. Currants are distinguished by their lack of any spines, prickles or thorns on the stems, which all gooseberries have to some degree, and clusters of 6 or more flowers, where gooseberries have clusters of only 1 to 4 flowers. Most similar to Swamp Red Currant is Garden Red Currant (Ribes rubrum), which has similarly shaped flowers that are yellowish to greenish with anthers that are dumbbell-shaped, and lacks glandular hairs on flower stalks, where Swamp Red Currant has more pinkish flowers with heart-shaped anthers, and has glandular hairs on stalks. There are also subtle differences in the leaves described in some references, but we have not found them to be very reliable characteristics in the field, though we observed Swamp Red Currant leaves are hairier on the upper surface where Garden Red Currant is mostly hairless. Swamp Red Currant also tends to stay short and low to the ground where Garden Red Currant can reach 4 feet or more tall.