''Rosa sericea'', the silky rose, is a species of flowering plant. The closely related ''

Rosa omeiensis ''Rosa omeiensis'' is a species of ''Rosa'' native to central and southwestern China in the provinces of Gansu, Guizhou, Hubei, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet, and Yunnan; it grows in mountains at altitudes of 700 to 4,400 m. It is a ...

'' is sometimes treated as a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of ''R. sericea''.

Distribution

It is native to south-western China (

Guizhou ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_map = Guizhou in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_alt = Map showing the location of Guizhou Province , map_caption = Map s ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

, northern India (

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

), Nepal and Myanmar; it grows in mountains at altitudes of .

Description

It is a

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

growing tall and is often very spiny. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

, long, with 7–11 leaflets with a serrated margin. The

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are diameter, white, with (unusually for a rose) only four petals. The

hips In vertebrate anatomy, the hip, or coxaLatin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) (: ''coxae'') in medical terminology, refers to either an anatomical region or a joint ...

are red, diameter, with persistent sepals, and often bristly.

Forms

There are four formae: * ''Rosa sericea'' f. ''sericea'' * ''Rosa sericea'' f. ''glandulosa'' T.T.Yü & T.C.Ku. * ''Rosa sericea'' f. ''glabrescens'' Franchet. * ''Rosa sericea'' f. ''pteracantha'' Franchet.

Cultivation and uses

''Rosa sericea'' f. ''pteracantha'' is grown as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or ''garden plants'' are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars th ...

for its large, bright red thorns. The plant, called ''se ba'' in the Tibetan language, has been used in

traditional Tibetan medicine Traditional Tibetan medicine or Sowa Rigpa is the Tibetan medical system developed in the 8th century under King Trisong Detsen that incorporated the best international medical practices of that time.Claude Arpi, ''Glimpses on the Tibet History' ...

. In addition, silky rose hips were used as weights for measuring gold and silver in Tibet.

Gallery

Rosa sericea pteracantha shrub.jpg, A shrub of ''Rosa sericea'' f. ''pteracantha'' Rosa Sericea Subsp Omeiensis Forma Pteracantha- Winged Thorn Rose.jpg, Winged thorn rose detail

References

sericea Flora of Assam (region) Flora of China Flora of East Himalaya Flora of Myanmar Flora of Nepal Flora of West Himalaya {{Rosa-stub