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Clearing Woods - Shrubs - Part 2 - Rose

Author: Marge Talt
Published on: Dec 12, 2000

Shrubs - Part 2 - Wild Rose

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.

Unfortunately, they are not fragrant, despite anything to the contrary that you might read. They bloom, in my area, with Hall's honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica 'Halliana'), which is highly fragrant and makes up for their lack of scent.

New foliage is attractive, often red outlined, on well-armed stems. These plants can be either shrubs or climbers. In parts of my woods, they are small, thin, lax and weak from too much shade. In sun, they form large plants six to ten feet (2-3 m) tall and ten to fourteen feet (3-4 m) wide. Since they root if the stems touch ground, as well as seed copiously and send up shoots from shallow roots, they quickly form virtually impenetrable thickets if they get enough sun to be robust.


All rose leaves are pinnate (leaves along each side of a common axis or rachis). Multiflora roses have seven to nine leaflets less than one and a half inches (4.0 cm) long, with finely serrate edges.


Most roses have a pair of stipules (a green, leaf-like structure) at the base of the petiole (leaf stalk).

Those on the multiflora rose are one of the keys to identifying it because the margins are feathery or comb-like.


The comb-like appearance is clearer in this close-up.


Thorns Or Prickles

Prickle: A small, sharp outgrowth of the epidermis (the outer layer of stem tissue).
Thorn: A modified stem, always originating at a node, with nodes and internodes along the length of the thorn.

Multiflora rose stems are armed with two kinds of thorns. Some roses have all one type and some have different shapes. They can be straight or curve down or up - which is rare.

The shape, size, number and where they are located on the stems (they can occur in pairs or be randomly spaced) helps to identify a particular rose.

The most difficult to encounter are the hooked thorns, which seem to me to be mostly on older stems on the multiflora rose. They grab and don't easily let go.

Unless we are botanists, we speak of roses are as having thorns, but the correct term for them is prickles. Being accurate in this is not an easy task as my vision of a prickle is something small and almost soft until you hit the pointed end. However, I shall try to call them by their right name.

True thorns are like those that grow on citrus trees or Pyracantha shrubs. Roses can have their prickles at nodes (joints on a stem where a leaf or bud grows or grew) but they most often occur along the internode (between nodes). These prickles can be several shapes: flattened, nearly cylindrical, hooked or straight. They can also be colored, generally rose colored.

The most incredible "thorns" belong to Rosa sericea ptericantha.

A long, straight, needle-like prickle is called an acicle. like the "thorns" on .Rosa Hugonis.

Multiflora roses also have a flatter prickle. It seems to occur mostly on new growth.

After bloom, this rose throws out long supple stems, with far spaced prickles. You'll think there aren't any and grab a stem to find that, indeed, they are definitely there.

Not only do these roses line their stems with prickles, they protect their buds with them, too, as you can see in this image of terminal buds. These are tiny little hooks, but sharp.

As the canes age, they become very woody and the bark turns from bright green to a grayish-brown with multiple fissures. The prickles turn gray and seem to me to get smaller than they are on newer growth - without, of course - losing any of their sharpness or grabbing power.

This 'grabbing power' is fueled by the downward curve in the prickles, which is what helps this shrub turn into a climbing plant. The long wands of supple new growth wave about in the wind. If they encounter anything, the prickles dig in and grab it. If that something is a tree or another, larger shrub, they hook on for dear life and new growth issues from buds to repeat the operation.

I've got specimens that have climbed trees to over fifteen feet (5 m). Once the growth hardens and becomes woody, they are very difficult to dislodge from their reluctant hosts.

I do have one that I've allowed to climb into one of the mature spice bushes (Lindera benzoin. It has practically engulfed it and needs cutting back badly, but I do so enjoy its blooming period, when the fifteen foot (4.5 m) shrub becomes a huge fountain of frothy white. Tackling that rose is one of those jobs that remain on my 'to do' list.

Multiflora rose hips are small, about a quarter of an inch (0.63 cm) in diameter. They remain on the shrub for quite some time.

Birds and wildlife eat them, but it seems that they wait until other, more tasty food, is gone first.

Eventually, the red casings dry to brown if they are full of viable seed or shrivel and turn black, if they aren't.

A close-up of the hips.

The red flesh is sticky inside the hip - and nutritious, as are all rose hips, being high in vitamin C. Rose hips have been used for centuries to make jellies, etc.

Inside each hip are two or three small, curved, hard seeds. These have a long afterlife, remaining viable in the soil for ten or twenty years. Once soil temperatures have risen above 60º F; (15º C), they germinate readily.

Three native roses that resemble the multiflora are:

Other "wild" roses found in various parts of the US include:

I've pulled and dug countless multiflora roses while clearing my woods. Some were easy to pull, while the more established plants required a fair amount of excavation to uncover their rust colored roots and sever them.

Attacking a huge mass of very wild and prickly stems can be a daunting task. The best and least painful approach is to grasp - with heavily gloved hand - the most accessible branches and clip them off as far along them as you can reach. Keep grabbing and clipping until you've cleared a way to the inside of the shrub so that you can get at the main stems near the ground. Sever these, leaving a short bit for a handle.

Next, start digging next to the crown until you uncover a root. Sever this - you may need a saw, if it's an old plant as roots can get quite large. Once you've gotten most of the larger roots, you can grab your stem stump handle and start rocking the plant. This will loosen it as well as show you where it is still connected. Keep this up until you have either severed all roots or the plant comes up with a mighty tug.

If you are tidy about it and lay all your trimmings in the same direction, you can roll them up in a compact wad to discard, as they will adhere to each other nicely. If you try to deal with a loose pile - stems sticking out every which way - one of the errant branches will reach out and grab you...depend on it.

I am well aware that where I did not remove every vestige of root, I will have another rose growing next year. They have very persistent, wandering ways. However, new growth will be weakened and if you are persistent in clipping it back to the ground, the plant will eventually die completely.

I would never recommend spending good money buying this rose, nor time and energy planting it. There are too many more worthy and attractive roses readily available. But, if you've got this rose on your property and have the room for it, enjoy it until you want to rip it out for something else. The wildlife will thank you.

If you choose to keep one, you'll need to do a fair amount of maintenance pruning to keep it within any reasonable bounds. In addition, canes tend to die out in the center and bottom of the plants, requiring a certain amount of painful clearing out.

More shrubs next time. See ya' later!

More Information

More native and species roses that might be the ones growing wild where you are:

Image Credits

Title image and all photos and scans are by Marge.

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