Nonnative Roses (Rosa spp.)

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Plantae
Phylum	Magnoliophyta
Class	Magnoliopsida
Superorder	Rosanae
Order	Rosales
Family	Rosaceae
Genus	Rosa

Scientific Name

Rosa multiflora

Common Name

multiflora rose

Miller, J.H., E.B, Chambliss, N.J. Loewenstein. 2010. A Field Guide for the Identification of Invasive Plants in Southern Forests. General Technical Report SRS-119. Asheville, NC. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 126 p.

Plant

There are 21 nonnative rose species loose in southern ecosystems and only 8 natives. These descriptions are for some of the most invasive roses, but are not all inclusive. Evergreen (except multiflora) erect climbing, arching, or trailing shrubs to 10 feet (3 m) in height or length. Clump forming. Pinnately compound leaves, frequent recurved and straight prickles, clustered or single white flowers in early summer, and red rose hips in fall to winter.

Stem

Long arching or climbing by clinging using recurved or straight thorny prickles. Green with linear horizontal leaf and branch scars at nodes. Flower buds of multiflora often red in winter. Bark dark brown with streaks of light brown or green.

Leaves

Alternate, odd-pinnately compound with 3 to 9 elliptic to lanceolate leaflets, each 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 8 cm) long. Margins finely and sharply serrate. Leafstalk bases clasping, channeled, and often bristled on margins, with toothed hairs.

Flowers

April to June. Terminal or axillary branched clusters or single flowers. Five white, pink, or red petals with many yellow anthers in center.

Fruit and seeds

July to December. Rose hip, spherical, and fleshy, 0.25 to 0.4 inch (0.6 to 1 cm). Green to yellow and ripening to glossy red.

Ecology

Form small-to-large infestations often climbing up into trees. Multiflora widely planted and often spreading along right-of-ways and invading new forests and forest margins. Colonize by prolific sprouting and stems that root, and spread by animaldispersed seeds.

Resembles

Resembles native Carolina rose (R. carolina L.), swamp rose (R. palustris Marsh.), and climbing rose (R. setigera Michx.), all of which have pink flowers in spring and nonbristled leafstalk bases, but none forming extensive infestations except swamp rose in wet habitat.

History and use

Introduced from Asia. Traditionally planted as ornamentals, livestock containment, and wildlife habitat. Multiflora widely planted for “living fences” or screening. Rose hips collected by herbalists for their high vitamin C content

Distribution

Found throughout the region except in FL with dense and frequent infestations in TX, AR, MS, AL, TN, KY, VA, NC, and west SC.

Management strategies

• Do not plant. Remove prior plantings, and control sprouts and seedlings. Bag and dispose of fruit in a dumpster or burn.
• Treat when new plants are young to prevent seed formation.
• Cut and bulldoze when fruit are not present.
• Minimize disturbance within miles of where these plants occur, and anticipate wider occupation if plants are present before disturbance.
• Manual pulling is hindered by thorny branches and is limited to new seedlings.
• Manually pull new seedlings and tree wrench saplings when soil is moist, ensuring removal of all roots.
• Readily eaten by goats and sheep, although this activity also might spread seeds.

Recommended control procedures

• Thoroughly wet all leaves with one of the following herbicides in water with a surfactant: [April to June (at or near the time of flowering)] Escort XP* at 1 ounce per acre in water (0.2 dry ounce per 3-gallon mix); (August to October) Arsenal AC* as a 1-percent solution (4 ounces per 3-gallon mix) or Escort XP* at 1 ounce per acre in water (0.2 dry ounce per 3-gallon mix); and (May to October) repeated applications of a glyphosate herbicide as a 4-percent solution in water (1 pint per 3-gallon mix), a less-effective treatment that has no soil activity to damage surrounding plants.
• For stems too tall for foliar sprays, apply basal sprays (January to February or May to October) using Garlon 4 as a 20-percent solution (5 pints per 3-gallon mix) in a labeled basal oil product, vegetable oil or mineral oil with a penetrant, or fuel oil or diesel fuel (where permitted); or apply undiluted Pathfinder II. Or cut large stems and immediately treat the stump tops with one of the following herbicides in water with a surfactant: Arsenal AC* as a 10-percent solution (1 quart per 3-gallon mix) or when safety to surrounding vegetation is desired, a glyphosate herbicide as a 20-percent solution (5 pints per 3-gallon mix). ORTHO Brush-B-Gon, Enforcer Brush Killer, and Vine-X are effective undiluted for treating cut-stumps and available in retail garden stores (safe to surrounding plants).

* Nontarget plants may be killed or injured by root uptake.

Images

Macartney Rose: September	Macartney Rose: May	Multiflora Rose: May	Cherokee Rose: April
Macartney Rose: September	Multiflora Rose: October	Cherokee Rose: April
Multiflora Rose: December	Multiflora Rose: October	Multiflora Rose: June	Multiflora Rose: September

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