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Common Dog Rose, Dog Rose. Deciduous shrub of the Rosaceae family, native to Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, naturalized far beyond. It colonizes hedges, forest edges, embankments, roadsides, and wastelands, from sea level up to about 1,500 meters in the mountains, on various substrates but preferably well-drained.
The habit is bushy and arched, with drooping branches armed with robust, hooked thorns. The height generally varies between 1 and 2.5 meters depending on conditions. The leaves are compound, pinnate, with oval, toothed leaflets of medium green, glabrous in the typical form.
The flowers, with five widely spread petals, are white to pale pink with a very prominent bright yellow center of stamens. They are slightly fragrant and gathered in small loose corymbs. In its natural habitat, flowering extends from May to July. In autumn, the hips — bright red ovoid pseudo-fruits — take over and often persist until winter, providing the shrub with a second moment of visual appeal just as remarkable as the flowering.
The hips are very rich in vitamin C and have been widely used in folk medicine and cooking, particularly for making syrups and jams. The species also serves as a classic rootstock for cultivated roses.
Completely hardy and undemanding, it adapts to almost any soil and tolerates drought once established. It is suitable for natural hedges, rustic compositions, and gardens with a wild character, where it attracts a variety of wildlife, from pollinators in June to fruit-eating birds in winter.