''Rosa pimpinellifolia'', the burnet rose, is a species of

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 e ...

native to western, central and southern Europe (north to

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and th ...

) and northwest

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Habitat

It is generally restricted to

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of ...

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

s or

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

pavements and typically has a

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in ...

al distribution when not on limestone.

Description

It is a rather low erect deciduous plant usually from 20–140 cm high but sometimes up to 2 metres. It spreads by

basal shoot Basal shoots, root sprouts, adventitious shoots, and suckers are words for various kinds of shoots that grow from adventitious buds on the base of a tree or shrub, or from adventitious buds on its roots. Shoots that grow from buds on the base ...

s and can cover large areas. The stems have very numerous stiff bristles and many straight prickles. The young stems and prickles and the mature leaves tend to be very red with young growth a bright scarlet and older growth a deep maroon. 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 mechanism ...

s are cream-white although rarely also pale pink. They are 2–4 cm diameter with five petals, which produce a distinctive globular dark purple to black

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 ...

. Similar plants native further east in

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 ...

, sometimes treated as ''Rosa pimpinellifolia'' var. ''subalpina'', are now regarded as a separate species '' Rosa oxyacantha'' (''Flora of China''); it differs in having pink flowers and red hips.

Cultivation

Numerous varieties are cultivated, of which "Stanwell Perpetual" has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ( ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

. It has very pale pink double flowers, fading to white. In emblematic terms it is particularly associated with

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, where it is traditionally referenced in poetry and song, and is a symbolic native plant second only to the

thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. ...

. Image:Rosa pimpinellifolia young stem.jpg, Young stem with spines. Image:Rosa pimpinellifolia hip.jpg, The fruit – called hip. Image:RosaPimpinellifoliaPlena1UME.jpg, 'Plena', a commonly grown cultivar. Image:Rosa spinosissima.JPG, In the Dutch dunes with hoverfly.

References

Flora Europaea: ''Rosa pimpinellifolia''Plants for a Future: ''Rosa pimpinellifolia''
*Blamey, M. & Grey-Wilson, C. (1989). ''Flora of Britain and Northern Europe''. Hodder & Stoughton. .
Flora of China: ''Rosa oxyacantha''
{{Authority control pimpinellifolia Flora of Africa Flora of Europe Plants described in 1759 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus