Rosa tomentosaSm.

whitewoolly rose

WFO wfo-0001006360 Accepted WFO 2026-06 6 photographs CC0

Plate 1 figs. a–f · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Rosa tomentosa, photographed by Robert H. Wardell
fig. a Robert H. Wardell, CC0 1.0 / 2019-07-20 / obs. 46049670
Rosa tomentosa, photographed by Robert H. Wardell
fig. b Robert H. Wardell, CC0 1.0 / obs. 46049672
Rosa tomentosa, photographed by Robert H. Wardell
fig. c Robert H. Wardell, CC0 1.0 / obs. 46049675
Rosa tomentosa, photographed by Tobias Schönberg
fig. d Tobias Schönberg, CC0 1.0 / obs. 48963934
Rosa tomentosa, photographed by Tobias Schönberg
fig. e Tobias Schönberg, CC0 1.0 / obs. 48447770
Rosa tomentosa, photographed by Robert H. Wardell
fig. f Robert H. Wardell, CC0 1.0 / obs. 46049668

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 27 botanical countries

Regions where Rosa tomentosa is native: North Caucasus, Türkiye, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Krym, Netherlands, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine North CaucasusTürkiyeAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkFranceGermanyHungaryIrelandItalyKrymNetherlandsNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine
Native distribution of Rosa tomentosa, 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
Baltic States BLT
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
North Caucasus NCS ASIA-TEMPERATE
Türkiye TUR

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 62 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -8.5 °C -2.5 °C 2.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.2 °C 22.9 °C 24.1 °C
Annual rainfall 642 mm 921 mm 1,636 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 109 mm 157 mm 363 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 62 research-grade observations of Rosa tomentosa that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 364 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.

  • Pugetia cuspidata (M.Bieb.) Gand.
  • Pugetia subglobosa (Sm.) Gand.
  • Pugetia tomentosa (Sm.) Gand.
  • Rosa abietina f. clivorum (Scheutz) Christ
  • Rosa abietina f. confusa (Puget ex Déségl.) Christ
  • Rosa abietina f. gisleri (Puget ex Crép.) Christ
  • Rosa andrzejowskii H.Waldner
  • Rosa andrzejowskii var. occidentalis Lonacz. ex Chrshan.
  • Rosa annesiensis Déségl.
  • Rosa anomala Ripart
  • Rosa antitraaenii (Almq.) Almq.
  • Rosa attenuata Chabert ex Rouy
  • Rosa barcensis Simonk.
  • Rosa billotiana Crép.
  • Rosa billotii F.Gérard
  • Rosa biserrata subsp. podolica (Tratt. ex Link) Heinr.Braun
  • Rosa borysthenica Chrshan.
  • Rosa britannica Déségl. ex Baker
  • Rosa canina subsp. pseudotomentosa (Pau ex Losa) Losa
  • Rosa canina subvar. podolica (Tratt.) R.Keller
  • Rosa canina var. podolica (Tratt.) Heinr.Braun
  • Rosa canina var. pseudotomentosa Pau ex Losa
  • Rosa canina var. tomentosa (Sm.) Desv.
  • Rosa capnoides A.Kern. ex Déségl.

and 340 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.