Rosa acicularis : Prickly Rose

Scientific Name:

Kingdom: Plantae

Division:

• Tracheophyta (vascular)
• Spermatophyta (seed bearing)
Angiospermae (enclosed seed)

Class: Dicoteldonae (two seed-leaves)

Family: Rosaceae (Rose Family)

Genera: Rosa (Rose) (Classical Latin name for these plants)

Species: acicularis (Lat. acus=a needle, needle-like; referring to the numerous thorns)

English Name(s):

Prickly Rose, Wild Rose, Brier

First Nation Names:

nichih

Structure:

• Small shrubs, usually 30-120cm high.
• Stems straggling to erect and covered with few to many thorns.

Leaves:

• Alternate, 3-15cm long, odd-pinnate with 3-7 leaflets.
• Leaflets 1.5-6cm long, by1-3.5cm wide, Margins serrate (toothed). Slightly pubescent (hairy) .

Reproductive Parts:

• Flowers showy, usually solitary, large, up to 5cm in diameter.
• Petals 5, pink, 2-3cm long.
• Sepals 5 1.5-4cm long, erect in fruit, glandular (with glands) on back.
• Stamens numerous

Seed:

• Fruit a pulpy Pome-like, berry-like structure called a hip. At first green ripening to an orange and then deep red.
• The seeds are enclosed in hairy achenes with are themselves enclosed in the pulpy hips.

Not to Be Confused With:

• If plant is not in flower and has no hips (berries), it could be mistaken for Rubus idaeus (Wild Red Raspberry).

Physiology:

• Sometimes little red pincushion like galls are on the leaves. These are caused by tiny wasps that lay thier eggs in the leaves. The larvae grow in the leaf until they emerge as adult wasps and fly away.
• The galls cause little damage to the rose. These wasps have evolved to be dependent on roses. They protect the larvae and the rose leaves from being fully consumed by creating a hard shell in the gall the the larvae can not eat through.

Life Cycle:

• Perennial.

Seasonal Cycle:

• Flowers bloom by early July.
• Hips (berries) are ripe in August.
• Leaves deicduous (falling off).

Animal Uses:

Habitat:

• Frequent on river banks, in woodland claerings, in burns. As well as in woods.

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Traditional Gwich'in:

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