Geographic range and origin: Multiflora rose is native to China, Japan, and Korea. It is widely distributed and highly invasive across most of North America, except in the west-central Plains region.
Habitat: Multiflora rose is found primarily in fields, roadsides, and forest edge habitats. It also invades disturbed and intact deciduous forests. Multiflora rose thrives in full and partial sun and moist, well-drained soils but also tolerates dry, shady conditions.
Multiflora rose forms dense shrub thickets. Arching, prickly stems can create impenetrable boarders
Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) compound leaves with 7 to 9 serrated leaflets
Description: Multiflora rose is an invasive, exotic perennial shrub. Leaves are pinnately compound and alternately with 7-9 oval, serrated leaflets.Shrubs often have multiple stems capable of rooting from tips that reach the ground. Stems grow rapidly, reaching 10 to 15 feet tall with numerous curved thorns (prickles). Flowers are white to pink and grow in clusters, blooming in late May or June.
Shrub like brush which grows haphazardly with winding stem(s) Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora)
Reproduction: Mature multiflora rose shrubs reproduce by seed and by forming new plants that root from the tips of arching branches when they come in contact with the ground. Each shrub produces 25 to 100 or more white to pinkish flowers with five petals. Flowers are radially symmetric and 0.5 to 0.75 inches wide. and number in long occurring in panicles. The average multiflora rose plant may produce a million seeds per year, which remain viable in the soil for up to twenty years. The red, fleshy fruits are readily eaten and dispersed by birds, and seed germination appears to be enhanced by passing through bird digestive tracts.
Flowers of multiflora rose have 5 petals and occur in clustered inflorescences (panicles)
Fruits (hips) are round, red, and fleshy, dispersed primarily by birds. Fruit develop during the summer and persist on the plant throughout the winter. (Photo by Gary Cote')
Conservation status: Invasive species and not under conservation protection in the United states.
Ecological importance: Multiflora rose is highly invasive. It forms dense thickets that crowd out native species, particularly shrubs and herbaceous species. Fruits ripen in the fall and often persist into the winter and serve as an important food resource for many bird species, which disperse the seeds.
Cultural importance or uses: Multiflora rose was used in the horticultural industry in rose breeding programs and as an ornamental garden plant. By the 1930's it was commonly planted in the Midwest and northeastern states at the support of the USDA, Soil Conservation Service for erosion control programs, wildlife habitat enhancement programs, and as a natural barrier to roaming farm animals.
Nature's Notebook datasheet for monitoring trees and shrubs, developed by the USA National Phenology Network
References:
Encyclopedia of Life. Rosa Multiflora. eol.org/pages/630393/details#reproduction.http://eol.org/pages/630393/details#reproduction
Swanson, R.E. 1994. A Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of the Southern Appalachians. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
USA National Phenology Network. Nature's Notebook Plants and Animals to Observe: Rosa multiflora. Url: https://www.usanpn.org/nn/Rosa_multiflora (Accessed 5/16/2018)
USDA, National Resources Conservation Service. 2018. Rosa multiflora Thunb. The PLANTS Database. National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC, USA. Url: https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=romu (Accessed 5/16/2018)