Rosa spinosissima L.

Shrubs low, ca. 1 m tall. Branches spreading or curved, glabrous; branchlets of present year purple-brown or red-brown; prickles dense to sparse, terete, straight or slightly curved, to 4 mm, fine, bristlelike, abruptly broadening at base, intermixed with smaller bristles. Leaves including petiole 4–8 cm; stipules mostly adnate to petiole, free part ovate, margin entire or serrate, teeth often glandular apically; rachis and petiole sparsely prickly and glandular-pubescent; leaflets (5–)7–9(–11), oblong, oblong-ovate, or suborbicular, 1–2.2 × 0.6–1.2 cm, glabrous, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin simply serrate or partly doubly serrate, teeth glandular apically when young, apex rounded-obtuse or acute. Flowers solitary, or 2 or 3 and fasciculate, axillary, 2–6 cm in diam.; pedicel 1.5–3.5 cm, sparsely pubescent or glabrescent, glandular-pubescent or not; bracts absent. Hypanthium subglobose, glabrous. Sepals lanceolate, abaxially glabrous, adaxially pubescent, margin entire, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate. Petals 5, white, pink, or yellowish, broadly obovate, base broadly cuneate, apex emarginate. Styles free, much shorter than stamens, pubescent. Hip black or dark brown, subglobose, 1–1.6 cm in diam., glabrous, shiny, with persistent sepals; pedicel to 4 cm, often glandular. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Oct–Sep.

Xinjiang [Russia (Siberia); C and SW Asia, Europe].

Scrub in forests, grassy slopes, river sides; 1100--2300 m.