Wild Rose, Smooth Rose, Prairie Wild Rose, Rosa blanda, Native Minnesota Wildflower shrub, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Wild Roses	species listed below	Rose	Upland	Early Summer to late summer
Other names and notes	There are six species of wild rose on the current Garden Census. Details of each are given in a table below. The flowers will all look similar other than for differences in size and sometimes color. Most have some form of stem prickle, and all have pinnately divided leaves, with the number and style of leaflets varying. The red fruit known as Rose hips, add much red color to the fall landscape. The six species are: Carolina Rose - Rosa carolina L. Climbing Rose - Rosa setigera Michx. Prairie Rose - Rosa arkansana var. suffulta (Green) Cockerell Prickly Rose - Rosa acicularlis Lindl. Smooth Rose - Rosa blanda Aiton Woods' Rose - Rosa woodsii Lindl.


Above: The dense thicket formed by the Wild Roses. Note the pinnately divided leaflets of the wild roses	Above: Flower of Smooth Rose, R. blanda
Below: The 3-leaflet leaf of Climbing Rose, R. setigera, showing the stipules at the base.	Below: The very prickly stems and rose hips of October of Prairie Wild Rose, R. arkansana.

Below: Detail of the winged stipules at the base of the leaf and of the curved thorns of Climbing Rose, R. setigera.	Below: Example of the vine like arching stems of Climbing Rose, R. setigera.


Above: Forming Rose Hips of late July	Above: Rose Hips of Late August.

Name	Carolina	Climbing	Prairie	Prickly	Smooth	Woods
Species	R. carolina	R. setigera	R. arkansana	R. acicularlis	R. blanda	R. woodsii
Height	6 to 48"	4 to 12 feet	less than 40"	up to 40"	36 to 48"	up to 6'
Stems	erect, usually unbranched	Vine-arching	erect, branching	erect, branching	erect, branching	erect, branching, reddish brown to gray
Thorns	rounded and near the nodes	short, stubby, slightly curved, not numerous	straight and unequal, densely prickled on stems and internodes.	straight and unequal, densely prickled on stems and internodes.	mostly without	straight or slighted curved
Flower	white to pink, sepals deciduous	pink, 3" wide	pink to rose, sepals persistent	pink to dark rose, 1 - 2 1/2" wide, sepals persistent	white to pink, 1 1/2 to 2 1/3" wide, sepals persistent	pink, 1 to 2", sepals persistent
Flower Position	on this year's stems, solitary	on this year's stems in a tight cluster	on top of this year's branches and often on last year's side branches; wide cluster of stalked flowers.	on last year's side branches, usually solitary	on last year's side branches, single or in wide cluster of stalked flowers.	on branches lateral from old stems, solitary or few in a cluster at tip of stem
Leaflets	3 to 7, oblong to rounded, coarse teeth	3, sometimes 5 on young growth, ovate to lanceolate with long pointed tips. 2 winged stipules at base of leaf, fine teeth.	9 to 11 oval to oblong, sharply toothed often fuzzy under.	5 to 7, elliptical to oval, often twice toothed	5 to 7 oblong, coarsely toothed	5 to 7 ovate or elliptical, finely toothed toward tip, 2 stipules at base.
Native status	listed as native by one source, but no collected examples.	not native	native -species is widespread in state but this variety not on state list.	native- found in the NE quadrant and 3 SE counties	native and found in most of the state	native in scattered counties in the north 1/3 of state.

Below: A dense thicket of Prairie Wild Rose, R. arkansana., with the brilliant red hips, in mid October

Notes: R. Blanda, is indigenous to the Garden area. Eloise Butler catalogued it on April 29, 1907. Although it is native to many states from the Dakotas eastward it is "endangered" in Maryland and "threatened" in Ohio. Eloise Butler recorded planting two plants of R. arkansana on May 9, 1910. It is a native of the central United States, once reported as far east as Ohio, where it is now considered lost. In the prairie states is can be considered invasive. In addition to those two species, Martha Crone, on her 1951 Garden Census also listed R. acicularlis as present in the Garden. The other 3 are later additions. Native status on those is given in the table above.

Eloise Butler wrote of the wild roses: "How do the roses know that it is June? With the advent of the crowning month of the year, gardens, wild wood and prairie are ever redolent with the fragrance and glorified with the supernal loveliness of the rose. Strange to say, a cult exists, slowly increasing in numbers, that considers single flowers - yes, even single roses - more lovely than the double ones, transformed by man from beautiful utility to useless beauty. For, with the multiplication of the velvety petals disappear the stamens and pistils which are the essentials for the formation of the seed - the purpose of the flower in nature. We may marvel at the skill of the florist in producing a cabbage-like double-dahlia and chrysanthemum; but we linger over and dearly love the single forms of these flowers. Banks of single roses in large gardens of double ones compel admiration and seem more decorative than the artificially produced double ones, to these possible-mistaken few." Published June 11, 1911, Minneapolis Sunday Tribune.

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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