Flora of New Zealand Series

burnet rose

Deciduous, dense and freely suckering shrub 0.4-1-(1.5) m high; stems erect or nearly so, ± arching in young plants, glabrous; armature of long, thin and straight to slightly curved prickles and abundant, straight pricklets and acicles. Lvs with 2-4-(5) pairs of leaflets; petiole 5-12 mm long, sparsely prickly, sparsely clothed in glandular hairs; stipules adnate and entire in lower part, free, expanded and ± toothed in upper part, glabrous. Lamina of leaflets 5-12 × 4-7 mm, broadly elliptic to suborbicular, glabrous, dull green above; margins sharply serrate, eglandular; base broadly cuneate to rounded; apex obtuse to subacute. Fls solitary on the numerous short lateral branches, single (possibly sometimes double), probably 30-40 mm diam.; pedicels glabrous, with pricklets. Sepals usually persistent, broadly lanceolate with an acuminate apex, ± hairy inside, glabrous outside; outer sepals entire. Petals probably 15-20 mm long, obovate to ± orbicular, white or nearly so. Styles free, shortly exserted, hairy. Fr. 7-13 mm diam., subglobose, glabrous, black.

S.: Palmerston (N. Otago), Gimmerburn and Roxburgh (C. Otago).

Eurasia 1958

Scrub and wasteland, especially near old cemeteries and around old settlements.

FL Nov-Dec FT Jan-Mar.

Burnet rose is probably only fairly commonly cultivated in N.Z. now, but was more commonly grown before the introduction of R. chinensis hybrids. R. pimpinellifolia seems to spread mainly by suckers although viable seed is probably produced. The black frs are distinct from the orange to scarlet ones of all other roses mentioned here. In addition, the small, broadly ovate to almost orbicular lvs easily identify it (Fig. 101). Var. myriacantha (DC.) Koehne is said to be wild in N.Z. (Steen, op. cit.) but this has not been confirmed. It has small, semi-double, whitish fls and is much more glandular than the type var. Some forms of R. pimpinellifolia in cultivation in N.Z. have yellow fls but such plants are probably not wild. The commonest plant of sect. Pimpinellifoliae in cultivation in N.Z. is the single yellow-flowered R. xanthina Lindley   f. spontanea Rehder cv. `Canary Bird'. This could easily be confused with R. pimpinellifolia except that the hips are red and the flowering shoots have prickles but no acicles.

The name R. spinosissima L. has often been applied to R. pimpinellifolia here and elsewhere but has been rejected as a nom. confusum.