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Rosa rugosa
Also called Japanese rose, Rugose Rose, Turkestan Rose, Saltspray Rose, Wrinkled Rose, Beach Rose, Ramanas Rose
A tough, suckering shrub from coastal eastern Asia, grown for its fragrant spring roses and large edible hips. It thrives in sun and salty, sandy conditions and is a good hedge or ground-cover plant.
Rosa rugosa (rugosa rose, beach rose, Japanese rose, Ramanas rose, or letchberry) is a species of rose native to eastern Asia, in northeastern China, Japan, Korea and southeastern Siberia, where it grows on beach coasts, often on sand dunes. It is naturalized in much of Europe and parts of the United States and Canada. It should not be confused with Rosa multiflora, which is also known as "Japanese rose". The Latin word "rugosa" means "wrinkled", referring to the wrinkled leaves. Often used as an ornamental plant, it has become invasive in parts of Europe, North America and South America.
Rosa rugosa is widely used as an ornamental plant. It has been introduced to numerous areas of Europe and North America. It has many common names, several of which refer to the fruit's resemblance to a tomato, including beach tomato or sea tomato; others include saltspray rose, and Turkestan rose. In parts of the US, the fruits are also occasionally called beach plums, causing confusion with the actual beach plum, Prunus maritima.
The sweetly scented flowers are traditionally used to make flower jam and dessert in China. They are also used to make pot-pourri in Japan and China. It is used in traditional Chinese medicine. Beach rose hips, like those of other rose species, are edible and can be used to make jams, syrups, tea, or eaten raw.
Prickly rose · White rose of York · Prairie rose · Field-rose · Banksian Rose · Smooth rose · Macartney rose · California wildrose · Dog rose · Carolina rose · Chinese rose · Amur rose
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Rosa rugosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
