- Rosa rubiginosa agg. L. - Sweet-briar - Rosaceae
© Paul Hackney
© Paul Hackney
(Map updated: March 2008)
Sweetbriar, also known as eglantine, is a rather uncommon native wild rose species of basic soils. It is an erect-growing shrub with bright pink flowers and the leaves have many sticky fruity-scented brown glands on the undersurface of the leaves, which have rather rounded leaflets. The older stems carry a mixture of large thorns and more slender prickles.
The fruity scent of the leaves when rubbed (some describe it as like apples) is quite strong and distinctive and a good guide to identification if you can smell it, but a minority of people cannot detect this scent.
All names: Rosa rubiginosa agg. L.; Rosa eglanteria auct.
NBN Atlas mapping: Species account : NBN Atlas UK Species Observations database
iNaturalist: Species account : iNaturalist World Species Observations database