I am a big geek

[canyon_lady]

So I was having a conversation about Nootka roses earlier this week. And it resulted in an email follow up where I was talking about the plant that went something like this:

Comments

[anonymous_sibyl]

This looks familiar to me. Like something I've seen on the Cape.

[canyon_lady]

Variations of wild roses grow all over the country, in just about any environment. In the midwest, the common native is Rosa carolina. (Pictures of the Carolina rose!) We also have Rosa rugosa (Rugosa rose - native to asia, may be an invasive, depending on the area and habits, also used as a hardy garden plant; pictures), Rosa palustris (Swamp rose; pictures) and the aggressive Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora: picturesNotice how in the pictures, they all look extremely similar? :) Id is all in little details of petal and sepal shape, leaf, flower, and prickle/thorn arrangement, habitat requirements, and other similarly subtle details. Example: Swamp rose (R. palustris) has hairy leaflets in arrangements of seven, and grows in wet areas, while Nootka rose (R. nutkana) has smooth leaflets in arrangements of 5 - 9, and grows in varied but often dry edge areas west of the rockies, plus a few other details. Though this will be exacerbated because I'm using google images and sometimes the links are wrong! My guess is that your cape

[anonymous_sibyl]

Salt spray rose! That's the one. I actually have a sweatshirt with a drawing of one on it. I knew I'd seen those before.

Thank you. This is a cool little intro to wild roses.

[iridescence]

Those look exactly like what used to grow on the edge of my parents' property. I just called them 'ditch roses' because... they grew in the ditch :P

[canyon_lady]

Yep, wild roses grow everywhere, all over the country! There are many different species and they vary from region to region - see my comment above. So the "ditch roses" you are seeing in Michigan are probably not the same wild roses you see in coastal Washington. But they are related, and look extremely similar, for sure!

That's some of what I love about these plants. Unlike many cultivated roses, which can be fussy little bitches (especially the hybrid teas, good lord), wild roses can handle the worst of conditions. They grow where other plants cannot, are often salt and drought tolerant or tolerate extremely wet conditions depending on the species (hence their appearance along roadsides), they are beautiful in all seasons, and provide fantastic food for insects and wildlife. I have a soft spot for old field plants - those hardy plants that tolerate marginal habitat, or habitat that has been compromised by human use.

[lux_apollo]

:-)

[canyon_lady]

I'm sure you have never had a conversation like that! Nope, not at all.