''Rosa willmottiae'', Miss Willmott's rose or Willmott's rose, is a species in the genus ''Rosa'' in the plant family

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus ''Rosa''. Among the most species-rich genera are ''Alchemilla'' (270), ''Sorbus ...

. It grows at an altitude of in dry valleys in western

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 ...

, China. It forms an arching

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 ...

shrub high, and as much across. The branches are covered in many straight prickles. The

pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

leaves typically have 7 to 9 small bluish-green leaflets which emit a pleasant fragrance when bruised. It was introduced to western cultivation by Ernest Wilson in 1904 and was named after the collector and horticulturist

Ellen Willmott Ellen Ann Willmott (19 August 1858 – 27 September 1934) was an English horticulturist. She was an influential member of the Royal Horticultural Society, and a recipient of the first Victoria Medal of Honour, awarded to British horticulturists ...

. The flowers are small (), lilac-pink, and are borne on short laterals all along the length of the branches in late spring/early summer. The hips are small, becoming orange-red and losing their tips when ripe. Charles & Bridget Quest-Ritson describe ''Rosa willmottiae'' as "one of the few wild roses that merits a place in a mixed border or even as a specimen shrub" and that when in flower it is "the embodiment of beauty".Quest-Ritson, C. & Quest-Ritson, B.,''The Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Roses'', Dorling Kindersley, 2003, p426

References

wilmottiae Flora of Asia Plants described in 1907 {{rosa-stub