ROSA ROXBURGHII Tratt. f. NORMALIS Rehder & Wilson, syn. R. microphylla Roxb. ex Lindl. Burr or Chestnut rose. Introduced in 1908.

A shrub rose with woody stems with peeling bark to 5m when old, with few thorns in pairs at the leaf bases. Leaflets 9-19, broadly elliptic to lanceolate, not stalked, with small, sharp teeth, completely glabrous beneath, the rhachis glabrous with a few small thorns. Stipules small, glandular. Pedicels short and stout, with fine prickles. Flowers solitary on short shoots, well-scented, almost white to deep pink, 5-7.5cm across, the petals deeply indented at the apex. Sepals leafy, around 1cm long. Styles not exserted from the hip. Hips with numerous straight prickles, almost spherical, with persistent sepals, falling when yellowish-green.

In China, in western Sichuan, Hubei and Yunnan at up to 2400m, flowering in May-June. Roger and I found this rose to be common in wetter parts of Yunnan and Sichuan; near Dali it grew on banks between the paddy fields, and along ditches. In western Sichuan it grew on roadsides at altitudes of around 1600m, in areas with high rainfall; here the flower colour varied from pale to deep pink. This species is named after William Roxburgh (1751-1815), superintendent of Calcutta Botanic garden and Chief Botanist of the East India Company from 1793-1813. It is an old Chinese garden plant introduced to Europe from Canton (today Guangzhou), via Calcutta.

Roy Lancaster records that the fallen hips smell of ripening apples. The species was originally described from the double-flowered form, f. roxburghii. Hardy to zone 7, will survive -15°C.

The flower specimens were both photographed in the wild in Sichuan south west China, the hips were photographed by Bill Grant.