Round-leaved dog-rose

Rosa obtusifolia, the round-leaved dog-rose, is a deciduous shrub in the family Rosaceae, native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia, where it grows in hedgerows, woodland margins and scrub on calcareous or neutral soils. The plant reaches 1 to 3 metres in height, with arching stems armed with strongly curved, hooked prickles. The pinnate leaves bear two to three pairs of small, broadly ovate to nearly orbicular leaflets with rounded or obtuse tips, double-serrate margins, and undersides that are pubescent on the veins and often glandular. Flowers are solitary or in small corymbs, with five white to pale pink petals around 15 to 25 millimetres long, blooming in early summer. The hypanthium and pedicels are glabrous and the sepals reflex and fall before the hip ripens. Fruits are small, ovoid to globose red hips, around 10 to 15 millimetres long, persisting into winter and dispersed by birds.