''Rosa acicularis'' is a flowering plant in the

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 ...

family. It is commonly known as the prickly wild rose, prickly rose, bristly rose, wild rose or Arctic rose. It is a species of wild

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

with a

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...

distribution in northern regions of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Description

''Rosa acicularis'' is a

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 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 ...

growing 1–3 m tall. 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 pinnate, 7–14 cm long, with three to seven leaflets. The leaflets are ovate, with serrate (toothed) margins. 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 pink (rarely white), 3.5–5 cm diameter; 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, pear-shaped to ovoid, 10–15 mm diameter. Its native habitats include thickets, stream banks, rocky bluffs, and wooded hillsides. The

ploidy Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell (biology), cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for Autosome, autosomal and Pseudoautosomal region, pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of mat ...

of this rose species is variable. Botanical authorities have listed it as tetraploid and hexaploid in North America (subsp. sayi), and octoploid in Eurasia (subsp. acicularis), including

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. On the northern Great Plains its populations are generally tetraploid. Hexaploid populations exist in the Yukon.

North America

This native rose species of the northern

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

is the provincial flower of

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. It is not as common in the Parkland region of the Canadian Prairie provinces as '' Rosa woodsii'' (Woods' rose), nor is it as common as Rosa woodsii in the

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...

of northern North America. File:Rosa_acicularis_8831.JPG, Larger stems are usually densely covered with straight prickles. File:TH prickly wild rose.JPG, Young flowers are darker in colour. File:Rosa acicularis 2.JPG, The fruit is usually elongated as shown here. File:Alberta license plate 1987.jpg, Since 1987 ''Rosa acicularis'' has been pictured on licence plates in the Canadian province of Alberta.

Uses

The

, which stay on the plant through winter, are reported to be high in vitamins A and C. Native Americans made tea and salad from the leaves, and used the inner bark to smoke

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

. Perfume has also been made from this plant.

References

acicularis Flora of Europe Flora of North America Flora of temperate Asia Holarctic flora Plants used in Native American cuisine Provincial symbols of Alberta {{rosa-stub

Description

North America

Uses

See also

References