Return

Rosa stylosa Desv.

Spa.: Rosa de estilos grandes.  Fre.: Rose à longs styles.

Shrub, deciduous, monoecious, with ± erect stems, up to 2 m in height; glabrous stems, green, rarely reddish, with prickles slender and sometimes curved, with oval base. Leaves are imparipinnate, with 5-7 leaflets (2.5-3 x 1.7-2.2 cm) ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, with rounded base, doubly serrated margin, not coriaceous, glabrous except on the central vein, where it is somewhat hairy, and without glands, although sometimes they may have some spaced glands. Petiole and rachis glabrous, although the insertion areas of the leaflets can sometimes be hairy. Stipules varied from 1.3-3×0.6-1, 2 cm. Hermaphrodite flowers, 3-5 in cymes, sometimes solitary flowers, with 1-2 bracts shorter than pedicels; pedicels 0.9-1.9 cm, glabrous, although occasionally they may have glands. Sepals (1.8-2.2 x 3.5-4 cm), ovate-lanceolate, glabrous or hairy on the back, not glandular, reflexes, deciduous; the external ones with 3-6(8) unequal lateral lobes and the internal ones entire. Corolla 2.5-4 cm in diameter; petals 5, 1.2-22 mm wide, notched at the apex, white or pale pink. Styles fused into a column less than 0.5 mm, although sometimes (in the maturation of the urnule) they can be free. Stamens very numerous, yellow. The fruit is a set of numerous achenes enclosed in a receptacle or urnule, ovoid or urceolate, red and smooth (1.1-1.6 x 1-1.2 cm in diameter).

Flowering:

April to July.

 

Fruiting:

August to September.

Habitat:

Thorny hedges and thickets, on very diverse terrain, from sea level to approximately 1,500 m. Thermomediterranean to supramediterranean belts.

Distribution:

Western and central Europe and NW Africa. In North Africa it is very rare. NW Morocco (Mamora forest, Sidi Allal el-Bahraui, Talassemtan national park), N Algeria [in Zaccar and Dira (Central-eastern Tellian Atlas)] and NE Tunisia (Zaghouan -Tunisian Dorsal-).

Observations:

It is a species of intermediate aspect between R. sempervirens and R. arvensis, the latter not present in Africa.

Conservation status:

It is a common species in Europe but very rare in Africa. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Tunisia all species of the genus Rosa are included in its List of native species rare and threatened with extinction (Order of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources 19-July-2006).

Menu