Who does not love the rose?
For thousands of years, roses have been entwined with humankind, permeating song, myth and story. Roses are among the oldest of cultivated flowers. Fossil remains of rose leaves and thorns have been found in Montana and Oregon, dating back more than thirty-five million years, according to one source.
I love roses as well as the next gardener, but the second most numerous shrub in the understory of my USDA zone 7 woodland leaves me with very mixed emotions.
Rosa multiflora
Like all roses, the multiflora rose is a member of the family Rosaceae, which contains some one hundred genera and three thousand species of herbs, shrubs and trees, found mostly in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Apples, cherries, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and almonds as well as Spiraea all belong to this family.
The multiflora rose, from Japan, Korea and eastern China, was introduced in the US in 1886 for use as a rootstock for ornamental roses. In the 1930s, it was widely promoted for use in soil conservation programs and as a high quality wildlife cover. It was even planted as a crash barrier along highways. It's still being sold by some of the less fastidious nurseries as a living fence or windbreak. It has now escaped cultivation throughout the US, except for the southeastern coastal plains, Rocky mountains and deserts of the far west.
Catholic in its tastes, it will grow just about anywhere except soggy ground. It prefers sun, but will grow in fairly deep shade, although it does not flower well there nor become very large.
While now on several noxious weed lists, it is a boon to wildlife, providing small mammals and song birds with safe nest sites as well as food. My local herd of white tail deer browse these shrubs almost all year around. I've read that it should be given some credit for the northward extension of the wintering range of many song birds in the past century. The berries (called hips) and leaves are eaten by many critters, including:
| grouse quail pheasant |
oppossum rabbit skunk coyote |
black bear beaver mouse |
A large specimen of this shrub in bloom in May (in my area) is a handsome sight for a couple of weeks.
Individual flowers are not showy, but they are born in racemes and great profusion.
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