Rosa micrantha Borrer ex Sm.
R. multiflora Thunb.
Eng.: Small-leaved sweet-briar, small-flowered sweet-briar. Spa.: Rosal silvestre, escaramujo. Fre.: Rosier à petites fleurs, églantier. Ara.: Ward, werd er zerub. Tam.: Tikhfert.
Shrub, deciduous, up to 2(3) m in height. Stems erect or curved, glabrous, green or reddish, with short prickles, compressed and hooked, widely scattered or sometimes absent, all homogeneous. Leaves smelling of apples, 5-7 leaflets [(1.5)2-2.5(4) × 0.8-1.8(2.7) cm], obovate or elliptic, with rounded base or somewhat cuneiform, twice serrated margin, glabrous or glabrescent on the upper side, pubescent and glandular on the underside, with conspicuous chestnut glands. Petiole and rachis glabrous, with some glands and some small prickles. Stipules ± twice longer than wide, with fimbriate-glandular margin. Flowers in multiflorous inflorescences, rarely solitary, with ovate-lanceolate bracts, pedicels (0.9-2 cm) with some glands and sometimes with aciculae. External sepals with 4-7(13) lobes, pinnatifid, with glands along the margin and on the dorsal side, folded backwards, caducous. Corolla 2-3.5 cm in diameter; 5 petals 1-2 × 0.9-2 cm, notched at the apex, white or white-pinkish. Styles free, glabrous. Urceolus 10-18 mm long, smooth, glabrous, dark red when ripe.
Flowering:
March to June.
Fruiting:
August to November.
Habitat:
Forests, thickets and rocky outcrops, preferably in ± humid soils, on diverse terrain, from sea level to over 2,000 m. In subhumid to humid bioclimate, on mesomediterranean and supramediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Europe, Mediterranean region and western Asia. In North Africa it is widely distributed throughout the Mediterranean region, from Morocco to N Tunisia, reaching in the S to the Anti-Atlas and Saharan Atlas.
Conservation status:
Common and widely distributed species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Tunisia it is included in its List of native species that are rare and threatened with extinction (Order of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources 19-July-2006).