Rosa spinosissimaL.

Burnet RoseScotch rose

WFO wfo-0001014557 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Rosa spinosissima, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. a B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-25 / obs. 202939340
Rosa spinosissima, photographed by Michel Langeveld
fig. b Michel Langeveld, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199757489
Rosa spinosissima, photographed by Michel Langeveld
fig. c Michel Langeveld, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199757891
Rosa spinosissima, photographed by allan5519
fig. d allan5519, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199097388
Rosa spinosissima, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. e B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196272993
Rosa spinosissima, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. f Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 192254591
Rosa spinosissima, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. g Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191551622
Rosa spinosissima, photographed by bigayon
fig. h bigayon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190300060

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 40 botanical countries

Regions where Rosa spinosissima is native: Algeria, Altay, Iran, Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Krym, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine AlgeriaAltayIranKazakhstanKrasnoyarskMongoliaNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeTuvaWest SiberiaXinjiangAlbaniaAustriaBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIcelandIrelandItalyKrymNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwitzerlandUkraine
Native distribution of Rosa spinosissima, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Iceland ICE
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Iran IRN
Kazakhstan KAZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Algeria ALG AFRICA

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 413 in flower of 801 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Rosa spinosissima observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 413 of 801 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 4 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 285 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Bakeria gentilis (Sternb.) Gand.
  • Rosa adenostephana Debeaux
  • Rosa affinis Gand.
  • Rosa agustiana Sennen
  • Rosa alpina var. rubella (Sm.) Ser.
  • Rosa altaica Willd.
  • Rosa arvensis L.
  • Rosa besseri Tratt.
  • Rosa borealis Tratt.
  • Rosa campestris var. myriacantha (DC.) Wallr.
  • Rosa campestris var. pimpinellifolia (L.) Wallr.
  • Rosa candolleana Thory
  • Rosa candolleana unranked flavescens Thory
  • Rosa candolleana unranked pendula Thory
  • Rosa canina var. affinis (A.Rau) Wimm. & Grab.
  • Rosa chamaerhodon Vill.
  • Rosa consimilis Déségl.
  • Rosa dichrocarpa Debeaux
  • Rosa elasmacantha Trautv.
  • Rosa elasmacantha var. iberica Gadzh.
  • Rosa elasmacantha var. leptacantha Trautv.
  • Rosa elasmacantha var. platyacantha Trautv.
  • Rosa fissisepala Borbás
  • Rosa gentilis Sternb.

and 261 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.