''Rosa omeiensis'' is a species of ''Rosa'' native to central and southwestern

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in the provinces of

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

Ningxia Ningxia (,; , ; alternately romanized as Ninghsia), officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR), is an autonomous region in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in ...

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

Xizang The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of Ü ...

, and

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

; it grows in mountains at altitudes of 700 to 4,400 m. It is a

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

which grows 4 m tall, and is often very spiny. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

, 3–6 cm long, with 5–13 leaflets with a serrated margin. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are 2.5–3.5 cm diameter, white, with (unusually for a rose) only four petals. The

hips In vertebrate anatomy, hip (or "coxa"Latin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) in medical terminology) refers to either an anatomical region or a joint. The hip region is ...

are red to orange-yellow, 8–15 mm diameter, with persistent sepals, and often bristly. There are four formae: *''Rosa omeiensis'' f. ''omeiensis''. *''Rosa omeiensis'' f. ''glandulosa'' T.T.Yü & T.C.Ku. *''Rosa omeiensis'' f. ''paucijuga'' T.T.Yü & T.C.Ku. *''Rosa omeiensis'' f. ''pteracantha'' Rehder & E.H.Wilson. It is sometimes treated as a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of the closely related species ''

Rosa sericea ''Rosa sericea'', the silky rose, is a species of flowering plant. The closely related ''Rosa omeiensis'' is sometimes treated as a subspecies of ''R. sericea''. Distribution It is native to south-western China (Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan ...

''.

Cultivation and uses

''Rosa omeiensis'' forma ''pteracantha'' is grown as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

for its large, bright red thorns.

Gallery

Image:Rosa_sericea_Pteracantha1UME.jpg, ''R. omeiensis'' f. ''pteracantha'' File:Rosa omeiensis 9517.jpg, ''R. omeiensis'' f. ''pteracantha'' Rehder & E.H. Wilson Image:0 Rosa omeiensis chrysocarpa - Yvoire.JPG, Thorns and leaves

References

Flora of China: ''Rosa omeiensis''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q148352 omeiensis Flora of China Flora of Asia