WildBristol.uk - Discovering Wildlife in Bristol

Stace 4:

Rosa caesia Sm. (R. afzeliana Fr. nom. illeg. pro parte, R. coriifolia Fr.) - Northern Dog-rose

Stems arching, to 2(3)m, green or somewhat red, with strongly curved to hooked prickles; leaflets ovate, somewhat rugose, scarcely glaucous, hairy on lowerside, uniserrate (or biserrate), with few or 0 glands; flowers 2-4(6), usually deeper pink than in R. canina, 3-5cm across; pecicels 0.5-1.5cm, glabrous, often concealed by large leafy bracts; fruit globose or ovoid to obovoid, 2-3cm, usually glabrous; sepals erecto-patent after flowering, falling before fruit ripe; disc flat to convex, with orifice 1/4-1/3 its total width; styles densely hairy; stigmas forming dome-shaped head almost covering disc; 2n-35. Native; hedges, scrub and wood-borders; throughout most of Northern 3/4 of British Isles, rare and very scattered in South.

Key:

• Leaflets without glands or with few non-scented glands on midrib on lowerside, uniserrate to biserrate with teeth not or variably gland-tipped; prickles hooked

• Orifice of disc about 1/3 its total width; styles woolly, forming dense mass more or less obscuring disc; sepals mostly erect to erecto-patent after flowering, usually persistent until fruit ripe