Rosa arabica Crép.
R. arabica (Crép. ex Boiss.) Déségl. R. rubiginosa var. arabica (Crép.) Boiss.
Eng.: St. Catherine wild rose, Sinai wild rose. Spa.: Rosal o escaramujo del Sinaí. Fre.: Rosier du Sinai. Ara.: Ward barri, alward elbary, wardit Kathrerine.
Shrub, deciduous, monoecious, which can reach 3 m in height. Stems erect or ascending. Prickles curved in flowering and vegetative stems, spaced, from curved to hooked, with decurrent base and compressed, without substipular prickles. Leaflets 5-7, elliptic, slightly acute or obtuse, cuneate base, with some glands on the upper side and glabrous on the underside, twice serrated with large triangular acuminate teeth. Petiole with developed auricles, acute, somewhat divergent, and prickles ± developed extending to the rachis; stipules not divided. Inflorescences with 1-3 flowers; hermaphrodites, with lanceolate bracts, usually caducous at fruit maturity; glandular-pulverulent pedicels. Receptacle flat. Sepals lanceolate, widened at the base, sometimes with lateral lobes and elongated terminal appendage, glandular-puberulent, reflexed, that persist until the urceolus becomes red. Corolla with pink petals; hirtellous styles with wide stigmas. Urceolus subspherical, red when ripe and smooth.
Flowering:
Late spring.
Fruiting:
Late summer.
Habitat:
In the Sinai Peninsula it is found mainly in valleys and gorges with steep slopes, with a N and NW orientation, between 1,700 and 2,350 m above sea level, in granite rocks.
Distribution:
Endemic to the high mountain areas of the Protectorate of St. Catherine in the southern Sinai Peninsula (Egypt).
Observations:
It is included here under this name due to its biogeographical significance (the only wild rose of Egypt) but its taxonomic identity is unclear. For some authors it is a variety of R. rubiginosa (Edmund Boissier and subsequent authors) and, for others, it is included in the normal variability of R. arversis (Tela Botanica). This plant is used in many ways: its flowers and leaves are used as an analgesic for menstrual pain, and for reproductive problems in sheep, goats, horses and camels; it is collected to be used as fuel; and it is important economically, since it is used for grazing of camels and donkeys. Considering these uses, as well as its extreme habitat in the Sinai Peninsula, it is currently considered as very threatened.
Conservation status:
Very rare and threatened species. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species it was listed as Critically Endangered (CR) at global level (Omar, 2017) and recently Omar & Elgamar (2021) have indicated that its population continues to decline. In the Red List of vascular plants of Egypt (Flora Aegyptiaca Vol. 1, 2000) it is listed as “Endangered”.