Woodland roses, invasive and native

We kill a lot of invasive multiflora rose. This organism was brought here by the USDA as a living fence species and escaped captivity. Living fences are better accomplished with trees grown in place, with any wire tacked onto a floating piece of treated lumber so that the wire doesn’t get swallowed by the radial growth of the tree. But I digress… Multiflora rose thorns have drained a lot of blood out of my body over the years, and the root exudate from this species is moderately allelopathic. You can see the lack of other plant species germinating seeding in under the rose as a result. It’s a bit yikes. 

I have been trying to teach people lately about our native woodland native roses, because I don’t want us throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Sometimes native roses are growing right next to invasive Rosa multiflora. It can be a little challenging to tell them apart until you compare the *stipule* on these plants, side by side.  A stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides of the base of a leafstalk. There are good pictures of the stipules of native and invasive roses here- once you see the cilia coming off the sides of the invasive roses, vs. the “peace fingers” coming off the native rose stipules, I think you’ll be able to reliably tell the roses apart! https://fieldbioinohio.blogspot.com/2011/06/some-ohio-roses.html