Western Wild Rose

On a cloudy January day look for bright, red rose hips for a glimmer of delight. Rosa woodsii, the Western wild rose, is a hearty plant that tolerates many soil types and even dry conditions. Once established, a mature plant produces rose blooms and then its fruit, a seed pod that we refer to as a hip. While invasive in a home garden, these hearty cane-plants with thorns, leaves, blooms and hips can be found brambling along a large swath of Western and Central North American terrain.

The little powerhouse hips are loaded with vitamin C, as well as vitamin A, calcium and phosphorus. They're used to make nutrient abundant teas, jams, jellies, syrups and products that nourish the skin.

We aren't the only creatures who utilize rose hips, their nutrients and antioxidants are also an important food source for birds and mammals. To name a few - robin finches, waxwings, grouse, coyotes, bear, squirrels, mice and chipmunk. They eat them. They poop the seeds. The seeds are dispersed across the land.

Roses also propagate themselves by root suckers. They form dense, brambly thickets where bunnies and and other critters hide and nibble. Larger browsing mammals will eat all matters of the rose plant if need be. The tangled web of canes and roots hold the soil together, resisting conditions of erosion.

Roses grace, summer with their pretty fragrant blooms, flowers that attract pollinators, insects like bees, bumblebees and lace wings. The flowers are used in potpourri, cosmetic waters lotions and perfumes. Edible petals can be tossed in salads or candied. Roses have been used medicinally with the petals, buds and hips made into teas and syrups. The high vitamin C content of their hips makes it a good remedy for colds and flus. A tea of the petals is used for headaches. Dizziness and a blood purifier,

One of the more interesting things about roses is that the petals were used to make beads during Medieval times. The petals are ground into a paste using mortar pestilent then hand-rolled into beads and air dried. The name rosary comes from this practice of making prayer beads using rose petals. The finished beads are matte black, imperfectly shaped and fragrant for years.

So if you're out this January and come across a rose, hip laden, shrub - pause for a moment to appreciate all that this plant contributes. What a blessing to have its rosy outlook brighten a winter day.