FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
Recognized by its typical rose features (prickles, rosehips). Note long stipules wrapped at bases of petioles and bristles on rosehips.
Synonym(s): Rosa floridana, Rosa lancifolia
Description: Broad-leaved, deciduous shrub with decurved, thorn-like prickles. Grows to 2 m tall and reproduces by runners, sometimes forming thick stands.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound. Leaflets elliptic and finely serrated. Number varies from 5 to 9 leaflets, usually 7. Leaflets 1 to 5 cm long and 0.5 to 2 cm wide with largest leaflets toward tip of leaf.
Flowers/Fruit: Large, pink, 5-petaled, single flowers at branch tips, later forming red rosehips covered with short bristles. Blooms May to July; fruits September/October.
Habit and Range: Marshes or wet shores of streams, lakes, and swamps throughout North Carolina, except rare in the Sandhills area.
COMMON CONFUSIONS:
A similar species, Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose), has clusters of several small, white fragrant flowers instead of single, large, pink flowers. Rosa multiflora also has stipules that are flat or open with hairs on the edges, and smooth rosehips fruit. R. multiflora is not native and usually grows in uplands.
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