Cherokee Rose
Rosa laevigata Michx.
Synonyms - Rosa amygdalifolia, Rosa argyi, Rosa cucumerina, Rosa nivea, Rosa ternata, Rosa triphylla.
Family: - Rosaceae
Names:
Other Names:
Noisette Rose
Summary:
A rampant, evergreen shrub with often-climbing stems that are armed with hooked thorns. The leaves usually have 3 leaflets and the fragrant flowers are white and usually have 5 petals.
Description:
See the Weedy Blackberry and Rose key.
Cotyledons:
Two.
First leaves:
Leaves:
Alternate, deciduous. 50-120 mm long by 50-120 mm wide. 3 leaflets or rarely 4 or 5.
Stipules - Free or joined to the petiole at the base with 2 free, narrow, pointed lobes. Usually fall off with age (caducous)
Petiole - Usually present and 15-50 mm long. With thorns and glandular bristles.
Blade - Of leaflet, egg shaped, to elliptic, 15-80 mm long by 10-50 mm wide. Length to width ratio is 1.6-1.71. Leathery. Tip pointed to rounded (acute, obtuse, rounded). Base tapering (cuneate). Edges toothed (serrate). Hairless and glandless on top side, Usually glabrous on the underside but sometimes glandular bristles and tiny prickles along the midvein when young.
Stems:
Erect, robust to 8 m long, often climbing. Round in cross section. Scattered curved thorns. Thorns to 4 mm long, flat gradually tapering to a broad base. Hairless but with glandular bristles that are dense on young stems and up to 4 mm long.
The stems will coppice and layer.
Flower head:
Single flowers at the ends of the stems or in leaf axils. Flower stalks (peduncles) glandular bristly and 18-30 mm long. Bracts not prominent or absent.
Flowers:
White, 50-105 mm diameter. Fragrant.
Ovary -
Styles - Free. Hairy, Much shorter than the stamens. Not exerted.
Sepals - 5 at the top of the floral tube. 20-30 mm long, slightly shorter than the petals. Persistent. Egg shaped, leaf-like. Edges smooth (entire) or sometimes glandular bristly. Smooth and hairless on the underside, densely hairy on top.
Petals - 5-10, white, egg shaped, 50 mm long, base broadly tapering, attached to the edge of the floral tube. Tip with a broad shallow notch (emarginate).
Stamens - Many of varying lengths. Usually yellow. Attached to the edge of the floral tube.
Anthers -
Fruit:
Red to brown-purple, bristly, egg shaped to almost spherical (obovoid, pyriform, subglobose), densely glandular bristly, 8-15 mm diameter by about 20 mm long and fleshy when ripe. Attached to persistent, erect sepals. Commonly called a "rose hip" or hypanthium.
Seeds:
Many, small. Appear to have some dormancy.
Roots:
Taproot and many laterals. Will form suckers.
Key Characters:
Usually has 3 leaflets.
Flowers white, usually with 5 petals.
Peduncles bristly.
Biology:
Life cycle:
Evergreen. Saplings will produce seed when 3 years old.
Physiology:
Reproduction:
By seed.
Flowering times:
September in WA.
Seed Biology and Germination:
Seeds appear to last a few years in the soil.
Vegetative Propagules:
Stems will regrow from the base when cut (coppice) and form roots where they touch the ground (layer). Root will form suckers naturally and when damaged.
Hybrids:
2 forms recognised. R. laevigata f laevigata has 5 petal flowers 50-70 mm diameter and R. laevigata f semiplena has semi double flowers, 50-100 mm diameter.
Allelopathy:
Population Dynamics and Dispersal:
Seed is spread by birds and mammals.
Origin and History:
Native to China.
Distribution:
QLD, WA.
Naturalised at Nannup in WA.
Not fully naturalised in NSW.
Habitats:
Along creeklines.
Climate:
Temperate.
Soil:
Plant Associations:
Significance:
Beneficial:
Ornamental.
Root bark contains tannin and is used for tanning.
Sugar is extracted from the hip and used to ferment wine.
Roots, leaves and fruit used medicinally.
Detrimental:
Minor environmental weed.
Toxicity:
Not recoded as toxic.
Symptoms:
Treatment:
Legislation:
None.
Management and Control:
In bushland situations, plant or encourage species that reduce light levels.
Slashing and deep ploughing or ripping in winter to bring the roots to the surface and summer cultivation to expose them to the sun usually gives good levels of control in agricultural situations. Replant to vigorous pasture species to prevent seedling establishing.
It is often difficult to control manually due to the production of suckers, coppicing and layering. All material needs to be burnt on site.
Grazing with goats can provide control.
Slashing alone is generally ineffective.
Mechanical removal, or slashing and burning followed by cultivation, can provide control if repeated regularly and then followed by planting of competitive, preferably perennial, pastures species that are grazed by cattle or goats.
Seedlings rarely establish in dense pasture or undisturbed native vegetation.
Control with herbicides is usually the most cost effective. Metsulfuron and Triclopyr plus picloram have provided the best results. Glyphosate can be used in home garden or other sensitive areas. Dead canes may be burnt or slashed in the following season to allow access and rehabilitation of the site.
Fire provides little control alone but assists access for herbicide application or other controls.
Triclopyr (Garlon®), triclopyr + picloram (Grazon®) generally provides good control any time the plant is actively growing with good leaf area.
Basal bark spraying the lower 50 cm of the stems with triclopyr or Access at flowering to early fruiting provides good control.
In Pine plantations hexazinone can be used.
Hexazinone as a spot treatment on the soil is also effective.
Imazapyr as an overall sprays when the plant is in full leaf to fruiting provides good control also and has a soil residual to help control suckers.
Follow up treatments are essential for high levels of control and to control suckering at the periphery of the bush in the season following spraying.
Low volume spraying is usually effective providing the amount of active ingredient applied per bush is kept constant.
For high volume spraying use 1 litre of mix for each 2.5 cubic metres of Rose bush (or 2.5 square metres of low lying Blackberry). This is equivalent to about 4000 L/ha of spray mix being applied.
Thresholds:
Eradication strategies:
Mechanical control is difficult and most of the root system must be removed for effective control.
3 annual, summer applications of 1 L of Grazon® plus 250 mL of Pulse Penetrant® in 100 L of water will eradicate most infestations. Replant native or agricultural species after control has been achieved.
On large infestations, 10 g metsulfuron(600g/kg) plus 250 mL Pulse Penetrant in 100 L water, applied in summer when the Rose is actively growing, provides a cheaper option to reduce the size of the infestation before Grazon® is used.
In urban and sensitive areas repeated applications of 1 L glposate450 in 100 L water will eventually provide high levels of control.
Herbicide resistance:
None reported.
Biological Control:
Pests include Aphids, Heliothis, Spider Mite and Thrips.
Diseases include Black Spot, Botrytis Blight, Dieback, Mosaic Virus and Powdery Mildew.
Related plants:
Cherokee Rose (Rosa laevigata) has white flowers and bristly fruit.
Chestnut Rose (Rosa roxburghii)
China Rose (Rosa chinensis)
Dog Rose (Rosa canina) is scrambling with pink and white flowers, 5 leaflet leaves and was a rootstock of ornamental roses.
French Rose (Rosa gallica)
Japanese Rose (Rosa multiflora) is invasive in the USA.
Macartney Rose (Rosa bracteata) has white, 5 petal flowers.
Manetti or Noisette Rose (Rosa chinensis x moschata) has pink many petal flowers and 3-5 leaflet leaves.
Musk Rose (Rosa moschata)
Sweet Briar (Rosa rubiginosa) has pink, 5 petal flowers and 5-7 leaflet leaves.
Rambler Rose (Rosa chinensis x multiflora) has pink to red flowers, the pedicels don't have prickles and it has 5-7 leaflets leaves.
Tea Rose (Rosa odorata)
Plants of similar appearance:
See the Weedy Blackberry and Rose key.
Blackberry (Rubus species) usually have palmate rather than pinnate leaves and a berry-like fruit rather than a “rose hip”.
References:
Auld, B.A. and Medd R.W. (1992). Weeds. An illustrated botanical guide to the weeds of Australia. (Inkata Press, Melbourne). P217.
Bodkin, F. (1986). Encyclopaedia Botanica. (Angus and Robertson, Australia).
Harden, Gwen J. (1991). Flora of NSW. (Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney). Volume 1. P541. Diagram.
Hussey, B.M.J., Keighery, G.J., Cousens, R.D., Dodd, J. and Lloyd, S.G. (2007). Western Weeds. A guide to the weeds of Western Australia. (Second Edition). Plant Protection Society of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia. P226. Photo.
Lazarides, M. and Cowley, K. and Hohnen, P. (1997). CSIRO handbook of Australian Weeds. (CSIRO, Melbourne). #863.5.
Paczkowska, G. and Chapman, A. (2000). The Western Australia flora: a descriptive catalogue. (Wildflower Society of Western Australia (Inc), the Western Australian Herbarium, CALM and the Botanic Gardens & Parks Authority). P512.
Randall, J.M. and Marinelli, J. (1996) Invasive Plants. (Brooklyn Botanic Gardens Inc. Brooklyn). P. Photo.
Wheeler, Judy, Marchant, Neville and Lewington, Margaret. (2002). Flora of the South West: Bunbury - Augusta - Denmark. (Western Australian Herbarium, Bentley, Western Australia). P 861.
Flora of China. http://flora.huh.harvard.edu:8080/actkey/actkey.jsp?setId=3251
Acknowledgments:
Collated by HerbiGuide. Phone 08 98444064 or www.herbiguide.com.au for more information.