Rosa woodsii

Rosa woodsii

There are several species of wild rose, but the common species in my area is Rosa woodsii, known by the common name of Woods' Rose. Wild roses are common and fairly easy to identify, with the typical rose thorns, compound leaves, and long canes which like to form dense brambles. They have large, five-petaled flowers, which are usually pink or whitish. The five petals is a notable difference from domesticated roses, which have been bred and grafted in order to get the domestic plants to produce a large number of petals. While this is very beautiful, it is not the natural state of roses. 

The fruit, called a rose hip, is the main edible part of all roses. It develops beneath the sepals (an "inferior ovary" in botanical terms) and has the appearance of a red, inflated end of the stem. It is full of hard seeds, and somewhat hairy inside, but you can split it open and scrape out the seeds. The taste can vary from plant to plant, but usually it is a fine tasting fruit, reminiscent of the smell of roses. The texture can vary from leathery in the fall, to soft in the winter, to dry and hard in the spring. Some people say the rose hips reach the peak of flavor after the first frost, so they are a good thing to forage in the late fall and are still available and tasty in the winter. They are very high in vitamin C, and because they remain on the plant all winter, when I stop by a rose bush in the winter to eat a few rose hips, I think of it as "taking my vitamins".

Rose hips also make a very well known and good tasting tea. Just dry the hips, with or without the seeds, and you can use them later to make tea. This is another good way to get vitamin C, which is always helpful to fight off sickness in the winter months, when colds and flus are common.

The other part of the rose which is commonly eaten is the petals. The wild rose petals usually have a slightly bitter taste to me. Personally I have found that the domestic rose petals are superior to the wild rose petals, both in taste and texture. They are usually larger, and it also helps that there are a lot more of them. They can be an interesting addition to a salad, or a decoration on desserts.