Wild Rose
Rosa spp.
Family Rosaceae

Characteristics:
* Many varieties of prickly, bristly, arching shrubs.
* Leaves feather-compound, with 3-11 leaflets.
* Leaflets can be narrow, wide, thick, or thin, toothed, hairy, or comblike.
* Flowers red to pink to white, with 5 petals, fragrant, 1-4".
* Twigs and stems red or green.
* Fruits, or 'hips' fleshy.
* Height: 3-6'.

Natural History:
* Flowers beginning in June and continuing to blossom (with specific variations) all summer.
* Habitat: Ranges from swamps and bogs, to woods and roadsides, to sand dunes and rocky places.
* Range: Throughout the United States.
* Native.

Connections!
* Wild roses are planted for decoration and erosion control. Rose hips are eaten by many animal species and candied and used in salads by humans.

* "If I talk of wild roses, the English reader will fancy I mean the pale ephemeral blossoms of our bramble hedges, but the wild roses...might be the choicest favorites of the flower garden...They come in all shades, from the deepest crimson to the tenderest pink. The scent is rich and delicate; in size they exceed any single roses I ever saw, often measuring above four inches in diameter."
-Frances Trollope, on her 1830 visit to America