As is so often the case, an alien plant is such a beauty! This is Wrinkled Rose, Rosa rugosa.
It gets its name because the leaves are rough (rugose) and crowded, making them look wrinkled. It also has very bristly stems. This is absolutely diagnostic, unless the thorns are purple.
The buds are lovely, because the flowers tend to be rather large, and a deeper pink than many of the native wild roses.
And the flowers are stunning (unless they are being chewed by rose chafer beetles- which these were, so I put in a flower picture from a couple of years ago)
They like to grow in sand, so you're likely to see them fairly often, here in Michigan!
Actually, the most interesting thing I saw today was a Woodcock flying, but I couldn't get a picture. They look like some strange, huge insect more than they look like a bird. Their beak is too long, they have "no" tail, and they take off as if they are standing up, so they look a bit like a hovering hummingbird, but they are 10-12 inches long. Wish I could have gotten that!
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6 comments:
I love roses!
Reading your description of the woodcock, I was thinking, "avian bumblebee." Rose color: fantastic.
Rosa rugosa - we use it in our hedges, not many try to get through it, it's a fearsome but beautiful plant.
Both the flower and the bird are beautiful, though the later is yet to come in sight.
those are pretty. I like the leaves on them
I just love roses. When I visited France many years ago, my head was spinning because of the roses everywhere.
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