Relatives

Rosa canina L. s.l. . Dog-rose.

Taxonomic position.

Family Rosaceae Juss. genus Rosa L.

Synonymy.

Rosa lutetiana Leman, R. calycina Bieb., R. prutensis Chrshan., R. maeotica Dubovik

Morphology and biology.

Deciduous shrub 1-2 m tall with arcuate glabrous thick shoots covered with sparse, firm, falcately curved prickles, which are broad at base and compressed laterally. Leaves alternate, compound, imparipinnate of 5-7 leaflets. Leaflets elliptic, acutely serrate at margin. Stipules narrow, glandulosely ciliate at margin. Flowers solitary or aggregated by 3-5. Pedicels and hypanthia glabrous, less often sparsely glandulosely setose. Sepals broadly lanceolate, pinnate, declinate after blossom, falling out before fruit maturity. Corollas white to bright pink, up to 8 cm diameter. Fruits are oblong-oval and bright red.
Entomophilous, ornitho- and zoochore. Propagates by seeds and summer cuttings. Flowers in June, mature fruits in August. 2n=35.

Distribution.

Scandinavia (south), Central and Atlantic Europe, East Europe (central and southwest), Crimea, Caucasus, Mediterranean, Central Asia (montane areas), Asia Minor, Iran, Africa (north). Cultivated in many moderately warm and non-tropical countries, also escapes wild even in northern regions.

Ecology.

Mesophyte. Photophilous. Occurs solitary or in small groups in thinned forests, shrubberies, forest glades and fringes, on slopes of river valleys and ravines, on meadow-steppe and steppe slopes, field margins and roadsides. Does not go high in the mountains, occurs more often in foothills, lower and middle zones.

Use and economic value.

Food, melliferous, medicine, ornamental. In both official and folk medicine, dried hypanthia are used most often, being a good multivitamin mean, also having cholagogue, diuretic, antiphlogistic and anaplerotic effect. Used in landscape gardening for solitary or clump planting, also by floriculturists as a stock for cultivated rose varieties.

References:

Gubanov IA., Kiseleva KV., Novikov VS., Tikhomirov VN. 2003. Illustrated Manual of the Middle Russia Plants. V.2. Moscow: KMK. 665 p. (In Russian).
Sokolov SI., Svjaseva OA., Kubli VA. 1980. Ranges of trees and shrubs of the USSR. V.2. Leningrad: Nauka. P.90. (In Russian).
Tzvelev NN., ed. 2001. Flora of East Europe. V.10. St.Petersburg. 670 p. (In Russian).
Yuzepchuk SV. 1941. Rose (wild rose) - Rosa L. In: Shishkin BK., Yuzepchuk SV. eds. Flora URSS. V.10. Moscow; Leningrad. P.431-506. (In Russian).

© I.G.Chukhina

© Photo: www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~Botanischer-Garten/ .