Rosa rubiginosa

Sweet-brier

Family: Rosaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Sweet-brier is a naturalized shrub found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, northern and central Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, Central Coast, and San Francisco Bay Area in generally dry, often disturbed open sites at elevations of 30 to 1,400 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces pink flowers 10 to 20 millimeters long in small clusters of 1 to 8 blossoms. Growing as a thicket-forming shrub 80 to 300 centimeters tall with few, curved prickles 5 to 15 millimeters long and thick bases. Its compound leaves have 5 to 7 leaflets, with terminal leaflets 10 to 35 millimeters long, elliptic to widely obovate, featuring double-toothed margins and glandular surfaces. The fruit is an ellipsoid hip 10 to 18 millimeters wide, bearing spreading or reflexed sepals.

Habitat: Generally +- dry, often disturbed open sites

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 30-1400 m

Bioregions: NW (exc NCoRH), CaR, n&ampc SN, Teh, CCo, SnFrB

California counties: Yuba, Mendocino, Butte, Del Norte, Nevada, Placer, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou, Shasta, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yolo, Humboldt, Sonoma, Kern, Marin, Lake, Napa, San Mateo, Sacramento

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