Rosa beggeriana Schrenk

Shrub up to 1.0-2.5 m. Leaves with 5-11 leaflets. Flowers white, large, 2-5 cm diam., numerous, in tight corymbs. Fruits globose, glabrous, red. Cold resistant. Z 4 (3).

Shrubs 1.5–3 m tall. Branchlets purple-brown, terete, slightly curved, glabrous; prickles scattered and in pairs below leaves, yellowish, hooked, to 8 mm, slender to stout, gradually tapering to broad base. Leaves including petiole 3–9 cm; stipules mostly adnate to petiole, free parts ovate, margin glandular serrate, apex acuminate; rachis and petiole pubescent, sometimes with small prickles; leaflets 5–9, broadly elliptic or elliptic-obovate, 8–25 × 5–12 mm, abaxially pubescent or glabrous, with prominent midvein, adaxially glabrous or pubescent, with concave midvein, base subrounded or broadly cuneate, margin acutely simply serrate, near base entire, apex acute or rounded-obtuse. Flowers several or numerous in corymb or panicle, rarely solitary, 2–3 cm in diam.; pedicel 1–2 cm, glabrous or pubescent, occasionally sparsely glandular-pubescent; bracts 1–3(or 4), ovate, margin glandular serrate, apex acuminate. Hypanthium subglobose, glabrous or pubescent. Sepals 5, deciduous, lanceolate, leaflike, abaxially glandular-pubescent, adaxially densely puberulous, margin entire, apex caudate. Petals 5, white, rarely pink, broadly obovate, base broadly cuneate, apex emarginate. Styles free, much shorter than stamens, villous. Hip red, becoming black-purple, subglobose, rarely ovoid, 6–10 mm in diam., glabrous, after ripening apical part of hypanthium and sepals deciduous together. Fl. May–Jul, fr. Jul–Oct. 2n = 14*.

Central Asia (Tarbagatay, Tien Shan). In clearings along streams and roads, and on hills.

Gansu, Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia].

Slopes, valleys, river sides, roadsides; 900--2000 m.

Rosa beggeriana is a species of rose found in Anatolia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, all of Central Asia, Xinjiang and Gansu in China, and Mongolia. It is a winter‑hardy rambler, with typically flat white (rarely light pink) flowers, and small red (becoming black‑purple) hips. Its 'Polstjärnan' (polestar) cultivar (of uncertain parentage) is the cold‑hardiest known climbing rose.