Rosa gallica L.
(W.R.S., D.R.G.)
French rose
Deciduous, erect shrub to c. 1.5 m high, densely suckering and forming low thickets; stems many, sometimes with glandular hairs; armature of occasional, narrow, almost straight prickles and more abundant acicles. Lvs with 2-3 pairs of leaflets; petiole 20-55 mm long, usually with eglandular hairs, often with glandular hairs also, sometimes glabrate; stipules adnate for ?-3/4 length, glabrous or with a few eglandular hairs, with numerous marginal glandular hairs. Lamina of leaflets (15)-25-60 × (10)-15-35 mm, broadly elliptic, glabrous and usually deep green and slightly shining above, hairy on lower part of midrib and veins beneath, otherwise glabrous, somewhat rugose; margins 1-2-serrate, with glandular hairs; base rounded or slightly subcordate; apex rounded or obtuse to acute. Fls 1-3, double, 50-90 mm diam., fragrant; pedicels usually with numerous glandular hairs and some acicles, occasionally glabrate. Sepals ovate, acute to long-acuminate, tomentose inside, with few to numerous small glandular hairs outside; outer sepals pinnatifid to pinnatisect with linear lobes. Petals c. 20-30 mm long, broadly obovate, rose, crimson or purplish rose. Styles free, slightly exserted, hairy. Fr. not seen.
N.: N. Auckland, Auckland; S.: Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago.
Europe, S.W. Asia 1966
Roadsides, open hillsides, especially in and around old cemeteries, mission stations, mining and other early 19th century settlements, on light, well-drained soils.
FL Oct-Dec.
R. gallica was one of the principal shrub roses cultivated by the early European settlers and soon became popular with Maori people also. It is almost certainly more widely distributed than indicated above. Its suckering habit meant that it was easy to propagate. Several cvs were grown; all those that have persisted and have been collected wild have fragrant, rather stiffly erect, flattened and double fls and rarely form hips, even in cultivation. By far the commonest cvs now wild are `Charles de Mills', with crimson petals when first expanded, and `Anais Segales' with purple-crimson petals from early anthesis. Steen (op. cit.) also recorded `Officinalis' and `Antonia d'Ormois' as wild.
R. gallica is one of the parents of the once popular cabbage rose and moss rose (see R. × centifolia), and may also be a parent of another well-known old rose, R. × alba L., sometimes cultivated in N.Z. They form sect. Gallicanae (Séringe) Rehder.
