Macartney Rose

Shrubs evergreen, diffuse, 0.5–3 m tall, with long repent branches. Branchlets purple-brown, terete, robust, tomentose; prickles often in pairs below stipules, straight to slightly curved, to 9 mm, flat, smaller prickles and glandular bristles often present and dense to scattered. Leaves including petiole 4–9 cm; stipules mostly free, or with base adnate to petiole, densely pubescent, margin pectinate, densely glandular-pubescent; rachis and petiole sparsely pubescent, glandular-pubescent and shortly prickly; leaflets 5–9, elliptic or obovate, 1–2.5 × 0.5–1.5 cm, leathery, abaxially glabrous or pubescent along veins, adaxially glabrous, shiny, base broadly cuneate or subrounded, margin crenate, apex truncate, rounded-obtuse, or slightly acute. Flowers solitary or 2 or 3 and fasciculate, 4.5–9 cm in diam.; pedicel less than 1 cm, densely villous, sparsely glandular-pubescent; bracts several, large, broadly ovate, abaxially densely tomentose, adaxially subglabrous, margin irregularly incised serrate, laciniate, or pectinate. Hypanthium depressed-globose, abaxially densely tawny pubescent and glandular-pubescent. Sepals 5, broadly ovate, abaxially densely tawny pubescent, adaxially sparsely pubescent, apex caudate-acuminate. Petals 5, white or yellowish white, obovate, base broadly cuneate, apex emarginate. Styles free, slightly exserted, slightly shorter than stamens, densely pubescent. Hip globose, 1.3–2.7 cm in diam., densely tawny pubescent, with persistent, reflexed sepals. Fl. May–Jul, fr. Aug–Nov.

Fujian, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [S Japan].

Mixed forests, scrub, sandy hills, stream sides, seashores, roadsides; sea level to 300 m.

Rosa macartnea Dumont de Courset; R. sinica Linnaeus var. braamiana Regel.