Ribes quercetorum grows in woodlands, chaparral, and dry desert slopes and canyons. It is a spreading shrub producing arching stems up to 1.5 meters (5 feet)long, the nodes along the stems bearing 1 to 3 spines each up to 1.5 centimeters (0.6 inch) long. The lightly hairy, glandular leaves are up to 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) long and are divided into a few lobes which are toothed or lobed at their tips. The inflorescence is a raceme of 2 or 3 small flowers. Each flower has five reflexed yellow sepals around a tube-shaped ring of smaller cream-colored petals. The fruit is a spherical, edible black berry just under a centimeter (0.4 inch) in diameter.[6]