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Vigorous, deciduous scrambler with white to cream flowers which have golden anthers. The flowers are usually in small bunches of 3 or 4 at the end of the twigs. Blooms later than the Dog Rose (Rosa canina) and for longer. Also the leaves are smaller than those of the Dog Rose, the prickles are also smaller and the flowers less fragrant. Another difference is that the hips are more globular.
Widespread and common in Southern England, Wales and Ireland but more scarce in the North. Field-rose is a deciduous shrub, up to 2 m in height which spreads by suckering and putting out slender arching stems into woodland and woodland margins. It also grows along hedges on neutral, lime-rich and heavy clay soils. The long scrambling stems are often purple-tinged, which intertwine and form an almost impenetrable mass and carry slender, only slightly curved, thorns on a base about 5 mm long.
The compound, pinnate, alternate leaves have 5-7 oval leaflets, 10-35 mm long which have saw-edged marginal teeth and are often hairy on the main vein beneath. Large, leafy stipules which run up the leaf stalks, are about 10 mm long.
The white to pink, 5-petalled flowers are 3-5 cm across, and appear in clusters of 1-6 and open in June and July. The styles in the centre of the flower are joined together into a slender column, which persists on the small, red hip. Needs to be in sun to fruit.
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