WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Bushy plants 1–10-feet tall can form dense, thorny thickets covered with showy rose to pink flowers. Note the straight to slightly curved thorns to 1/4-inch long (6 mm) at the branch internodes with noticeably different prickles in between.

FLOWERS: May–August. Fragrant flowers to 2-inches wide (5 cm), usually 2–3 in a cluster at branch tips; 5 oval petals 5/8–1-inch long (15–25 mm), numerous stamens with showy yellow anthers. Fruit a red, rounded to elliptical hip 1/4–1/2-inch diameter (7–12 mm), not prickly.

LEAVES: Alternate. Odd-pinnately compound with 5–7 elliptic to oval leaflets along midrib, size variable to 2-inches long (5 cm) and 1-inch wide (2.5 cm), margins serrated.

HABITAT: Moist sandy, clay loam soils, sunny slopes, open forests, drainages; pinyon-juniper, ponderosa, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 5,500–11,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, TX, UT; Rocky Mountains and westward.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Of the 5 native species of red roses in NM, this is the most common. Desert Rose, R. stellata, widespread in southern NM in desert scrub and pinyon-juniper, has solitary flowers (not clusters), leaves with 3–5 wedge-shaped leaflets and hips with prickles.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide in mountains of NM (absent eastern plains) at mid- to high-elevation moist habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.