- Scientific Name: Rosa laevigata Michx.
- Ref: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1:295. 1803
- Synonyms:
- Rosa amygdalifolia Ser.
- R. cucumerina Tratt.
- R. hystrix Lindl.
- R. laevigata var. leiocarpa Y.Q.Wang & P.Y.Chen
- R. laevigata f. semiplena T.T.Yu & T.C.Ku
- R. nivea DC.
- R. sinica W.T.Aiton
- R. ternata Poir.
- R. triphylla Roxb.
- English Common Name: Cherokee rose
- Chinese Common Name: 金樱子 jīnyīng∙zǐ
- Japanese Common Name: ナニワイバラ [難波茨/浪花茨] naniwaibara
- Family: Rosaceae
- Genus: Rosa
- Distribution: Thickets, scrub, open montane areas, open fields, farmland; 200–1600 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Vietnam; cultivated elsewhere].
- Photo: 04/16/2017, Hangzhou, Zhejiang
- Note: It is the state flower of Georgia, USA.
Shrubs evergreen, climbing, to 5 m. Branchlets purple-brown, terete, robust; prickles scattered, curved, to 4 mm, flat, gradually tapering to a broad base; bristles glandular, dense on young stems, to 4 mm. Leaves including petiole 5–10 cm; stipules caducous, free or with base adnate to petiole, lanceolate, glandular serrate, apex acuminate; rachis and petiole shortly prickly and glandular bristly; leaflets 3, rarely 4, elliptic-ovate, obovate, or lanceolate-ovate, 2–6 × 1.2–3.5 cm, leathery, sometimes abaxially minutely prickly and glandular bristly along midvein when young, glabrescent, adaxially glabrous, base broadly cuneate, margin acutely serrate, apex acute or rounded-obtuse. Flower solitary, axillary, 5–10 cm in diam.; pedicel 1.8–2.5(–3) cm, densely glandular bristly; bracts absent. Hypanthium ovoid, densely glandular bristly. Sepals 5, persistent, slightly shorter than petals, ovate-lanceolate, leaflike, abaxially glabrous, adaxially densely pubescent, margin entire, often glandular bristly. Petals 5, semi-double, or double, white, broadly obovate, base broadly cuneate, apex emarginate. Styles free, much shorter than stamens, pubescent. Hip purple-brown, pyriform or obovoid, rarely subglobose, 0.8–1.5 cm in diam., densely glandular bristly, with persistent, erect sepals. Fl. Apr–Jun, fr. Jul–Nov. (Flora of China)
