Rosa rubiginosa L.

vernacular sweetbriar rose — species · Rosaceae

USDA: RORU82
GBIF: 8174785
Rank: species

sweetbriar rose (Rosa rubiginosa) — Platephotograph · Rosa_rubiginosa_mit_einigen_Knospen.jpgCC BY-SA source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Subshrub
Duration: Perennial
Group: Dicot
Family: Rosaceae Juss.
Genus: Rosa

§2a

Native status, by region

CAN Canada Introduced
L48 Lower 48 States Introduced

§2b

County-level range

· 4 counties across 2 states/territories

Legend Native · 0 Introduced · 4 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: Medium
Shade: High
Moisture use: Medium
Fire: High
Salinity: Medium
Anaerobic: None
CaCO₃: High
Hedging: Medium

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -33 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 100 min.
Precipitation: 32–45 in/yr
pH range: 5.2–7.5
Root depth: 20 in min.
Fertility need: Medium
Soil texture: coarse, medium, fine

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Multiple Stem
Growth rate: Moderate
Lifespan: Moderate
Mature height: 10 ft
Height @ 20 y: 10 ft
Foliage texture: Coarse
Foliage colour: Green
Porosity (summer): Moderate
Porosity (winter): Porous
Flower colour: Red
Fruit colour: Purple
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: None
Toxicity: None

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Early Summer
Seed abundance: High
Seed begins: Summer
Seed ends: Fall
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: Yes
Seeds / lb: 31,000
Propagation: seed, bare root, container

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: Routinely Available
Nursery stock: Yes
Browse palatability: Low
Graze palatability: Low
Palatable, human: No
Protein potential: Low
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 4 counties across 2 states/territories.

Montana view state ↗ 2 I ▾

Rhode Island view state ↗ 2 I ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/RORU82 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/8174785 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25

fetched 2026-05-25T18:27:19Z