Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

MULTIFLORA ROSE

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Rosa multiflora Thunb. ex Murr

Riley County, Kansas

Perennial Shrub

Height: Up to 10 feet tall

Family: Rosaceae - Rose Family

Flowering Period: May, June

Also Called:

Japanese rose.

Stems:

Erect and arching to trailing, bearing stout, flattened, broad-based prickles.

Leaves:

Alternate, odd-pinnate; leaflets 5-11, egg-shaped or oblong, .8 to 1.6 inch long, glabrous above, usually downy beneath; margins toothed; tips blunt or pointed; stalks pubescent; stipules at base of leaf stalks deeply dissected, comb-like.

Inflorescences:

Few to many flowers in rounded or pyrimidal branched clusters.

Flowers:

Flowers .6 to 1 inch across; sepals 5, .25 to .4 inch long, glabrous or stalked-glandular; tips often tapering to slender points; petals 5, egg-shaped, .25 to .5 inch long, white or rarely pink; stamens numerous; styles united into column.

Fruits:

Achenes, about 1/6 inch long, yellowish, somewhat flattened; enclosed in a fleshy, spherical, red "hip".

Habitat:

Open woodlands, stream valleys, waste places, thickets, pastures, and along roads.

Distribution:

East half of Kansas.

Origin:

Multiflora rose was introduced from Asia. Naturalized in the U.S.

Uses:

It was formerly planted for wildlife cover and to serve as a barrier. It often escapes and becomes weedy.

Multiflora rose leaflets