Exotic Roses Multiflora rose - Rosa multiflora; McCartney rose - R. bracteata; Cherokee rose -R. laevigata; and other exotic invasive roses. Plant: Erect and arching shrubby roses, invasive and clump forming, 3 to 7-leaflet, to 10 ft (3 m) long and high, having frequent recurved and straight thorns (Multiflora often reddish to brownish), clusters or single white or pink rose flowers in early summer yielding red hips in fall. Stem: Long arching or climbing by thorns, green with recurved or straight thorns, leaf and branch scars linear, spaced like nodes, bark light brown with streaks of green or dark brown; Multiflora’s buds red in winter. Leaves: Alternate, odd-pinnately compound, leaflets 3 to 9, elliptic to lanceolate, margins finely and sharply serrate, leafstalk bases clasping and channeled and often bristled on margins with toothed hairs.

Multiflora rose May (J. Miller)

April (J. Miller)

Flowers: Apr-Jun. Terminal or axillary branched clusters or single roses, petals white or pale pink or red.

Fruit and seeds: Jul-Dec. Rose hip, spherical and fleshy, 0.25-0.4 in (0.6-1 cm) long, green to yellow and ripening to glossy red.

Ecology: Multiflora rose widely planted for “living fences” or screening, escaping along right-of-ways and invading new forests and forest margins. All these exotic roses will form small to large infestations often climbing up into trees Colonize by prolific sprouting and runners that root, and spreading by animal-dispersed seeds.

Resemble wild rose (Rosa carolina) which is not a large shrub or does not form dense infestations and prairie rose (R. setigera), both with pink flowers in spring and their leafstalk bases are not multi-bristled.

Exotic Pest Plant Control Recommendations

FIA Code - 2160

May (J. Miller)	September (J. Miller)
May (J. Miller)	August (J. Miller)
June (T. Bodner)	December (J Miller)
Multiflora rose August (J. Miller)	States with suspected Multiflora rose infestations are shown in red.*
States with suspected Macartney rose infestations are shown in red.*	States with suspected Cherokee rose infestations are shown in red.*

* USDA, NRCS. 2001. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.1 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA. February 5, 2002.