Dog rose
Rosa canina
Family · Rosaceae · Irritating
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The hedgerow rose, five pale pink petals and a light scent, bearing in autumn the elongated red fruit called a hip. It is one of the best sources of vitamin C on a trail.
Roadsides and waste ground · Oak woods · Uplands · Fields and pasture
Also known asbriar rose, rose hip
How to tell it
Arching canes with broad-based curved thorns, like claws. A leaf split into five to seven toothed leaflets. A simple five-petalled flower, quite unlike any garden rose. A red, oval, smooth fruit.
What it is confused with
Bramble
Rubus ulmifolius
They share the hedge and the thorns, and both bear usable fruit. Bramble gives a black berry made of many beads; the rose gives a red, smooth, elongated single fruit.
Open sheet →What it is for
The hip makes jam, syrup and infusion, traditional across Europe. Practical warning: the hairs around the seeds inside are irritant and cause itching, and must be removed, which explains the Spanish name.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.