Japanese Rose agg. - Rosa rugosa

Rosa rugosa is a small sprouting shrub that forms dense thickets. The surface of the leaves is wrinkled, dark green when mature, smooth above while pubescent and slightly sticky underneath. The twigs are stout and covered with thin, straight sharp spines of various sizes. The flowers are big (8- to10 cm across) and can be white or light to dark pink depending on the cultivar, also doubled flowers occur in the wild. The fruits are large and slightly flattened, shiny, deep red and fleshy "rose-hips" which ripen in late summer. This is one of many cultivated plants that escapes into the wild and persists, at least for a time. These cultivated plants may have many different varieties or cultivars, and hybridisation is common so our images of garden escapes can only be said to be representative of the species.

Scrub and waste places often close to habitation.

Flowers late May to August.

Deciduous shrub.

Widespread and fairly frequent in Britain as an escape from cultivation, it has the potential to become an invasive species.

Occasional in Leicestershire and Rutland as an established garden escape. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 7 of the 617 tetrads.