Landscape Plants

Broadleaf, deciduous, much branched shrub, 1-4 ft (0.3-2.2 m) high.  Leaves alternate, compound, pinnate, mostly 5 leaflets, but 3 to 9, each is stalkless, elliptic, mostly 1.5-5 cm long and 0.5- 2.5 wide, rounded at both ends, margins finely toothed, dull green above and pale green below and slightly hairy.  Twigs are bristly with many straight, slender, gray, sharp pointed spines or prickles.  Flowers usually solitary, but 2 or 3 sometimes, at the ends of short lateral branches; 5 petals that are pink to rose, 2-3 cm long.  Fruit is a pear-like, elliptic or rounded hip, 1.5-2 cm long, dark red of purple, fleshy and edible, with persistent long sepals, mostly pressed together.

Sun to shade, require careful pruning  to be attractive as a landscape ornamental

Hardy to USDA Zone 1        Native range is circumpolar in the boreal forest region, from Alaska, British Columbia to Quebec and New England. It is also found in the Rocky Mountains as far south as northern New Mexico and in the northern Great Plains and the Lake States.

acicularis: shaped like a needle, needle like  Presumably in reference to the stem spines and prickles.