Rambler rose (multiflora rose)
Rosaceae (Rose family)
Introduction to Vascular Plants
Species Information
General:
Low to medium scrambling or climbing shrub, up to 5 m tall/long; stems slender, erect to arching, usually covered with numerous straight, paired, bristly prickles; twigs of the current year often smooth; mature stems reddish- to greyish-brown.
Leaves:
Alternate, deciduous, odd-pinnately compound, the axis densely hairy and glandular; leaflets commonly 7 to 9, elliptic to egg-shaped, rounded to merely pointed, 2-5 cm long, coarsely toothed to double-toothed, the teeth often gland-tipped, more or less rounded at the base, usually somewhat hairy on the underside; stipules conspicuously fringed or comb-like and often glandular.
Flowers:
Inflorescence many-flowered, the flowers 20-100; corollas white, saucer-shaped, the petals 1-2 cm long; calyces 5-lobed, the lobes lanceolate, persistent, becoming reflexed in fruit; ovaries superior but enclosed in the urn-shaped floral tube (hypanthium); stamens numerous.
Fruits:
Achenes, stiffly long-hairy on one side or towards the tip, enclosed by the fleshy hypanthium which ripens into a scarlet to purplish, globe- to pear-shaped or ellipsoid hip 0.5-2 cm long/wide.
Illustration
If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
Illustration Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
Habitat and Range
Mesic slopes in the lowland zone; rare in SW BC, known only from Sapperton Island; introduced from E Asia.Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Rosa cathayensis (Rehder & Wilson) L.H. Bailey
Rosa watsoniana Crép.
Taxonomic Keys
KEY TO ROSA
1. Stipules deeply fringed or comb-like; inflorescence multiflowered..........R. multiflora 1a. Prickles strongly curved, stout; calyx-lobes often with conspicuous lateral segments and usually reflexed after flowering.
2. Lower surface of leaflets stalked-glandular..............R. eglanteria 1a. Prickles not or slightly curved, often slender; calyx-lobes usually without lateral segments, usually ascending or erect after flowering.
3. Calyx-lobes deciduous in fruit, 12 mm long or less; petals 15 mm long or less...............R. gymnocarpa 4. Stems with well-defined infrastipular prickles (pair of prickles at or just below each node) or nearly unarmed.
5. Calyx-lobes usually glandular-bristly; leaflets finely toothed; plants from west of the Coast-Cascade Mountains............R. pisocarpa
6. Flowers small and clustered; calyx-lobes mostly 1-2 cm long and 2-3.5 mm wide at base; petals 1.2-2.5 cm long................R. woodsii 4. Stems more or less bristly with slender prickles; infrastipular prickles, if any, like the others.
7. Flowers mostly solitary, usually on lateral branchlets of current season; leaflets usually 5 to 7 (9); petals more than 2 cm long..................R. acicularis Source: Illustrated Flora of British Columbia (Vol. 4). (1999) |