In this group

multiflora roseRosa multiflora

Small white flowers form large clusters, and the stipules at the base of each leafstalk are deeply fringed. It is invasive across much of the eastern United States.

rugosa roseRosa rugosa

Wrinkled, leathery leaves, dense straight prickles, and large red-orange hips help identify this East Asian rose. It has escaped plantings and invades some northeastern coasts.

dog roseRosa canina

This European rose has pale pink single flowers and arching prickly stems. It is introduced in several eastern and western U.S. states.

Virginia roseRosa virginiana

A native eastern North American shrub with pink summer flowers and glossy red hips. It is widespread from Atlantic Canada south into the eastern United States.

Lady Banks roseRosa banksiae

In warm U.S. gardens, long nearly prickle-free canes carry small white flowers; the familiar yellow-flowered form is a cultivar.

Appearance

Growth form

Species may form upright shrubs, spreading colonies, or long arching canes that climb over nearby plants.

Flowers

Wild roses often have single pink or white flowers. Centuries of hybrid breeding have produced garden roses with many colors, fragrances, petal counts, and bloom patterns.

Fruit

After flowering, the fleshy flower cup may become a red, orange, or dark rose hip containing several hard achenes.

How to recognize it

Roses are shrubs or rambling vines with alternate pinnate leaves and usually serrated leaflets. Stems often carry prickles, and wild flowers commonly have five petals around many yellow stamens.

Look-alikes

Where it lives

Typical habitats

• woodland edges and thickets
• coasts and dunes
• gardens and roadsides

Range

Rosa is native across temperate and subtropical parts of the Northern Hemisphere. The United States has roughly 20 native species, along with many cultivated and naturalized roses. In much of the eastern U.S., multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) is invasive; rugosa rose (Rosa rugosa) is invasive in some northeastern coastal habitats.

Preferred conditions

Wild species occupy habitats ranging from wetlands and sandy coasts to dry prairie and mountain slopes. Most garden roses flower best in sun and well-drained soil, although needs vary by type.

Life cycle

Seed dispersal

In the eastern United States, birds and mammals disperse some multiflora rose seeds after eating its hips.

Growing it

Propagation

Roses can reproduce by seed, rooted stems, or suckers. Garden varieties are commonly propagated by cuttings, budding, or grafting to preserve their traits.

Toxicity

Prickles can injure skin and eyes. A wild fruit should not be treated as edible simply because it resembles a rose hip.

Connected species

Pollinators

• beesAnthophila

  Single and semidouble roses offer accessible flowers that attract bees.

• butterfliesPapilionoidea

  Single and semidouble roses can also attract butterflies.

Seed dispersers

• birdsAves

  In the eastern United States, birds eat multiflora rose hips and disperse some of its seeds.

Name and classification

Group name

In everyday English, “rose” can refer to the whole genus, a wild species, or one of many complex garden hybrids.

Varieties and forms

Garden roses are mostly cultivated hybrids derived from several wild Rosa species. They include single, semidouble, and double flowers; shrub and climbing habits; and once-blooming or repeat-blooming plants.

Culture and stories

Culture and stories

• Multiflora rose was once promoted for living fences and erosion control in the United States, but it escaped and now forms dense invasive thickets.