French Rose
Rosa gallica L.
Synonyms -
Family: - Rosaceae
Names:
Rosa is Latin for rose.
Gallica refers to France.
Other Names:
Gallic Rose
Rose of Provence
Summary:
A red to pink flowered, 5 petalled, deciduous, erect rose with straight thorns and forming dense patches of shrubbery from suckers. The leaves usually have 5 leaflets that are somewhat crinkled and light green on top and hoary underneath.
Description:
See the Weedy Blackberry and Rose key.
Cotyledons:
Two.
First leaves:
Leaves:
Alternate, deciduous. 3-7 (usually 5) blue-green leaflets.
Stipules - Joined to the petiole with free egg-shaped tips which maybe fringed with hairs.
Petiole - Yes. Hairy (pubescent) and slightly glandular.
Blade - Of leaflet, oblong to egg shaped, toothed. Somewhat leathery and wrinkled. Hairy (pubescent), glandular hairy and whitish hoary underneath and somewhat smoother and pale green on top. Veins raised on the underside. Rounded to pointed tip. Edges toothed.
Stems:
Stiffly erect, to 1.5 m long with straight, slender prickles of varying sizes, glandular bristles (acicles) and glandular hairs.
Suckers from roots rarely exceed 1 m in height.
Flower head:
Flowers usually single or in clusters of 2-4 at the ends of the stems. Flower stalks glandular hairy. No bracts.
Flowers:
Very fragrant, deep pink to dark red, 50-70(90) mm diameter.
Ovary -
Styles - Free, hairy, not protruded beyond the disk.
Sepals - 5, bent back after flowering. Glandular on the outside. Outer ones with lobed almost halfway to the midrib (pinnatifid). Attached at the top of the globular floral tube. Tend to fall off when in fruit.
Petals - 5, deep pink to dark red, about 25 mm long, somewhat heart shaped and attached to the edge of the floral tube. Tip shallowly indented.
Stamens - Many of varying lengths. Usually yellow. Attached to the edge of the floral tube.
Anthers - Yellow
Fruit:
Dark red or orange to brownish, globular to egg shaped hip, 10-20 mm diameter, glandular hairy. Sepals often attached initially and fall off with time.
Seeds:
Many, small.
Roots:
Taproot and many laterals.
Strongly suckering from running roots.
Key Characters:
Leaves with 3-7 leaflets.
Flowers dark red to deep pink with 5 petals.
Petals with indented tips.
Biology:
Life cycle:
Perennial.
Physiology:
Reproduction:
Seeds and suckering.
Flowering times:
Seed Biology and Germination:
Vegetative Propagules:
Hybrids and Varieties:
Rosa gallica var. gallica
Rosa gallica var. officinalis is a semi double form known as the “Apothecary's Rose” or the "Red Rose of Lancaster", and is the county flower of Lancashire.
It hybridises freely and there are many wild and cultivated hybrids.
Allelopathy:
Population Dynamics and Dispersal:
Spread mainly by intentional planting and dumping of garden refuse.
Origin and History:
Southern and central Europe through to Turkey and the Caucasus.
A cultivar of the Gallica Group named 'Cardinal de Richelieu' was genetically engineered to produce the first blue rose in 2004.
Distribution:
SA.
Habitats:
Climate:
Temperate, Mediterranean.
Soil:
Plant Associations:
Significance:
Beneficial:
Ornamental.
Detrimental:
Minor environmental weed of roadsides and along creeks.
Toxicity:
Not recorded 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:
Bodkin, F. (1986). Encyclopaedia Botanica. (Angus and Robertson, Australia).
Randall, J.M. and Marinelli, J. (1996) Invasive Plants. (Brooklyn Botanic Gardens Inc. Brooklyn). P. Photo.
Willmott, Ellen. (1910). The Genus Rosa.
Acknowledgments:
Collated by HerbiGuide. Phone 08 98444064 or www.herbiguide.com.au for more information.