Stats

Lifespan: Perennial
Size: Medium
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Temperate shrubland
Range: North America
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: Spines
Status: Uncommon

About

A thorny shrub with five-petaled pink blossoms that thickets along streambanks and chaparral from Oregon down into Baja California. Its bright red rose hips persist through winter and were eaten fresh or brewed as tea by Indigenous peoples of California.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

Learn more

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Genus: Rosa
Species: Rosa californica