Rosa minutifolia

Small-leaved rose, Small-Leaved Rose

Family: Rosaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.1

Small-leaved rose is a rare (CNPS 2B.1) California native shrub found in southern Peninsular Ranges at Otay Mesa in chaparral at elevations of approximately 160 meters. Flowering from February to April, this plant produces dark pink flowers about 10 to 20 millimeters wide with distinctive prickly stems. Growing as a dense thicket-forming shrub 30 to 100 centimeters tall, it has numerous slender, straight prickles 2 to 12 millimeters long. Its compound leaves have 5 to 7 leaflets, with a terminal leaflet approximately 3 to 6 millimeters long, round, and toothed along half its margin. The plant forms dense shrubs with finely short-hairy leaf axes and characteristically glandless, toothed leaflets.

Habitat: Chaparral

Bloom period: Feb-Apr

Elevation: +- 160 m.

Bioregions: s PR (Otay Mesa)

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.