Rosa rugosa Japanese Rose I
This Asian introduction is often to be found on dunes or rough ground near the sea. Most flowers are red/deep pink but a few are white and on a warm day you can smell this flower before you see the colour of the flowers. After flowering it produces large diameter red hips.
It has become a popular hedging plant but because it reproduces quickly and seems to enjoy our cool damp climate, some organisations have now designated this as an invasive species. The more species that are added to this list of "alien invaders" the more it become obvious that such decisions are arbitrary and not based at all on evidence of invasiveness in the British Isles but more on what has been observed in other countries and therefore different habitats and ecological conditions. B.S.B.I. have written about this and they pint out that scientific evidence of invasiveness published in peer reviewed journals is sparse.
BSBI comment on Alien Plant Invaders
Rosa rugosa is fairly common throughout England and common on many of the coastal habitats in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
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| Rosa rugosa Japanese Rose |
Trearddur Bay, Anglesey LHS: 16th June 2004 RHS: 5th June 2006
Added on 20th September 2004, updated 20th January 2012