But do they taste as sweet?

Carolina rose hips

This past spring I located (and blogged about) the native Carolina rose and the invasive multiflora rose, both of which are found on Roundtop. The other evening I relocated both plants and have now found that even the rose hips of the two plants are different. So even now, in the fall, I can tell the difference between them.

The native Carolina rose has round and smaller rose hips. The multiflora rose has a larger and elliptical-shaped rose hip. There are other, more subtle differences, too. The blossom end of the Carolina rose is a bit larger than the tiny spot on the multiflora rose. On the multiflora rose, the flowers are all up and down the stem, and so are the rose hips. With the Carolina rose, the flowers are clumped together and naturally, so are the hips.

Rose hips are edible and birds love them, scattering the seeds in their poop. People make tea and jellies with them. I’m told that you should wait until after the first frost to gather them, as the frost sweetens them. Some rose species apparently have better-tasting rose hips than others. For tea, the recipe I’ve seen says to steep 4-8 hips in a cup of boiling water for 10-15 minutes. Some recipes suggest you prepare the rose hips before using them. Others say to use them whole. To prepare them, the directions are to trim the stem and blossom ends, slice the hip in half and remove the inners seeds, using scissors if the hips are too small for a knife.



Multiflora rose hips

If you dry the hips before you use them, you won’t need as many in your recipes. Drying is a simple matter of spreading them out somewhere and letting them dry to the point where the skin just begins to feel and look shriveled. Then, you split them and remove the seeds. Apparently, if the hips are too dry, you can’t remove the seeds and if they are not dry enough the inside pulp is sticky and will cling to the seeds. 

After the seeds are removed, let the hips dry completely or they won’t keep well. You can store them in sealed plastic bags for several months or freeze them so they last indefinitely.

I’ve never tried to eat or use rose hips before, but I think I’m going to this year. All rose hips are edible, the literature says, so I think it’s worth trying. I’ve read the hips are packed with vitamin C and once dried or frozen can be eaten like candy. And perhaps if I eat the multiflora rose hips, that will help keep them from spreading so fast. (I can only wish.)

A rose by any other name...

Today, if you'll permit me, will be a small lesson in telling a native wild rose from the invasive multiflora rose. The photo above is a native wild rose, the Carolina rose (aka pasture rose).  This is the only plant of it I've seen at Roundtop.  It grows along the lane up to the cabin. It's a lovely shade of medium pink, with dark green leaves. The rosebuds are especially pink.

Almost directly across the lane from it is one of many multiflora rose plants that have sprung up around the mountain.  Were it not an invasive, introduced species that pushes out native growth, I would likely report this was also a pretty plant, if not as stunning as the Carolina rose. 

The multiflora rose is paler than the native rose, and in some plants a pink shade to the flowers is barely visible.  In many plants the flowers appear white.  The leaves are a slightly paler shade of green than the  Carolina rose sports, but you really have to see the leaves side by side to notice that.  Another difference is that the multiflora rose produces flowers that are less clumped than the Carolina rose.  Multflora flowers are spread out along the flower stems, while the Carolina's flowers grow in distinct clumps of buds. 

 

The differences between the two seem slight and may be difficult to discern unless you can look at both plants at once, as I am able to.  I wish I didn't have that opportunity. 

I can report that despite their proximity, the Carolina rose plant is large and healthy, larger than it was last year.  I hope it stays that way. 

The Enemy

Sometimes I find it difficult to accept that such a beautiful plant like the multiflora rose really is an invasive enemy. The plant is everywhere this year at Roundtop, and eradicating it looks to be an impossibility. Anyplace that isn’t deep forest is vulnerable to its attack. Even a small clearing created by the natural fall of a moderately sized tree lets enough sunlight into the woods that the plant is likely to spring up there.

On my morning walk with Dog today I counted 23 different clumps of it, some quite small, others huge and overflowing thickets of blooms. I have no idea what the solution to this one is. I have neither the time nor the energy to clothe myself in canvas and attempt the pull the plants from the ground myself. Around the mountain are likely hundreds of clumps. And so the roses continue to bloom and spread everywhere on the mountain. Their scent fills the air right now. Lovely and lethal to native plant life without a solution in sight.