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Rosa acicularis Lindl.

Modern name

Rosa acicularis Lindl.

Synonyms

R. alpina Pall., not L.; R. gmelinii Bge.; R. karelica Fries; R. sayi Schweinitz fide Rehd.

A lax shrub to 8 ft high; stems glabrous, densely clad with slender, straight or slightly curved prickles and shorter bristly ones; flowering branches sometimes unarmed. Leaflets mostly five or seven, sometimes nine, 34 to 238 in. long, elliptic, oblong-elliptic or ovate, usually acute at the apex, edged with coarse simple teeth, bluish green above, greyish and glabrous or sparsely downy beneath. Stipules narrow, glandular at the edge, the free part acute or acuminate. Flowers usually solitary, more rarely in twos or threes, 112 to 238 in. wide, fragrant, rosy pink. Pedicels smooth or glandular-bristly. Sepals narrowly lanceolate, slightly expanded at the apex, more or less upright after flowering. Styles woolly, free. Fruits bright red, about 1 in. long, smooth, ellipsoid, globose or pear-shaped, often with a distinct neck, crowned by the persistent sepals.

Native of the Old World from European Russia and bordering parts of Scandinavia to the Pacific, south to N. China and Japan; also of N. America, though the var. bourgeauiana appears to be commoner there than the typical state. It was described by Lindley in 1820 from a garden plant introduced from Siberia. Although much cultivated in Siberia, and used there as a hedging plant, R. acicularis is uncommon in Britain outside scientific collections, though worth cultivating in semi-wild spots for its large pink flowers, borne in May, and abundant red fruits.

var. bourgeauiana Crép. R. engelmannii S. Wats.; R. acicularis var. engelmannii (S. Wats.) Rehd.; R. a. subsp. sayi (Schweinitz) W. H. Lewis, in part – Undersurface of leaflets more or less glandular, their margins often edged with compound glandular teeth. Fruits variable in shape as in the type. Native of N. America, where, however, the species also occurs in its typical state. On the other hand, plants with glandular leaflets occur in Russia (R. a. var. subalpina (Bge.) Boulenger; R. oxyacantha Bieb.), but these are said to have commonly nine leaflets.

The synonymous name R. engelmannii S. Wats. is founded on a plant raised in the Arnold Arboretum from seeds collected by Engelmann in Colorado, but plants distributed in Britain under this name do not match the type, and some appear to have been R. arkansana (q.v.).

var. nipponensis (Crép.) Koehne R. nipponensis Crép., nom. prov. – Leaflets seven or nine, sometimes eleven on sterile shoots, elliptic, mostly rounded or subacute at the apex, not much over 1 in. long, finely toothed. Flowers, in the introduced plants, of a beautiful deep purplish red. Bot. Mag., t. 7646.

This variety was, with hesitation, separated from R. acicularis by Crépin, whose description is based on specimens collected in Japan on Mt Fuji by Tschonoski and on others from plants grown in the Copenhagen Botanic Garden, whence it was introduced to Kew in 1894; the Copenhagen plants had been raised from seeds received from St Petersburg. It is doubtful whether this rose ever spread much beyond Kew and it is perhaps worthy of reintroduction. Typical R. acicularis also occurs in Japan.


Genus

Rosa

Other species in the genus