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Rosa arvensis Huds., Field-rose

Account Summary

Native, occasional. European temperate.

1882; Stewart, S.A.; Florencecourt.

June to September.

This is a weak-stemmed, sprawling, trailing and clambering rose which tolerates only a little shade and which therefore often climbs over other woody species for support and to reach the light. While it grows and can form quite dense sprawling patches on a wide range of soils, it appears to prefer heavy conditions and avoids more acidic substrates (R. Maskew, in: Preston et al. 2002). This rose species has stems that display the very strongest colour contrast between their sunlit and shade sides: wine-red on the sunny side and greenish-glaucous on the shaded side. This type of pigmentation is common enough in other rose species, but the contrast is never as strong as in R. arvensis. The leaves are glabrous (hairless) or with a few sparse hairs on the midrib below and consist of five leaflets. The styles are also glabrous and are fused into a long column that sticks out of the flat disc on top of the developing hip like a little peg. Other useful recognition characters are the long, glandular flower stalks and the almost entire, simple sepals that are unique in B & I in being purplish, not normally green in colour (Graham & Primavesi 1993, p. 65; Primavesi & Graham, in: Rich & Jermy 1998).

In Fermanagh, R. arvensis has been recorded in 41 tetrads (7.8%), but only 27 of them have post-1975 records, a statistic which suggests to the current author (RSF) that it is under-recorded. The local habitats it occupies are perfectly typical for the species, ie hedges and the margins of woods and scrub, on roadsides, lakeshores and riverbanks. As the tetrad map indicates, Field-rose is widespread but very unevenly scattered in the VC, with most of the sites being around Upper Lough Erne.

In the rest of Northern Ireland, it is also unevenly scattered, with many sites around Lough Neagh and in Co Down (H38), but comparatively few elsewhere. Field-rose is widespread in the Republic of Ireland, but here it has a decidedly southern and eastern trend in its occurrence, the distribution apparently becoming much more fragmented N of Dublin.

The New Atlas map shows that except in Scotland, where it is rare and very probably introduced, in Britain R. arvensis is widespread – yet with a very pronounced southern distribution. This mainly European rose very much reaches the northern limit of its distribution in B & I, while on the continental mainland it does not extend further N than the Netherlands (Hultén & Fries 1986, Map 1072).

R. arvensis is rather variable and in their critical Flora of Great Britain and Ireland 2, Sell & Murrell (2014) recognise four varieties of it, distinguished by leaf serration (uni- or biserrate), pedicels (glandular or smooth) and hip shape (globose or ovoid). Of these four varieties, var. arvensis occurs throughout the whole range of the species, while the other three varieties occur occasionally.

No less than ten hybrids are listed for B & I by Sell & Murrell (2014) and nine by Stace et al. (2015). Only one of these is at all widespread, R. × irregularis Déségl. & Guillon (= R. × verticillacantha Mérat), the other parent being R. canina L. (Sell & Murrell 2014; Stace et al. 2015). Four of the nine or ten hybrids have been found at least once in Ireland (Stace et al. 2015).

Growth form and preferred habitats

A small, much branched, usually pale greyish-green, summer annual therophyte up to 10 cm tall, with digitately or palmately lobed leaves, this sexually reproducing form of Aphanes is very much more local than the apomictic A. arvensis (Parsley-piert). It is greener and more slender than the latter, flowers from April to October and has even smaller fruits than A. arvensis s.s., showing no constriction between the upper and lower parts, and the sepals are convergent (New Flora of the BI 2019, p. 277, Figs 1, 2). It is less common than A. arvensis s.s. and appears to be confined to short turf, mossy areas on acidic sandy or gravelly soils, or dry rocky ground, eg on roadsides, along tracks and in quarries and sand-pits. It is not as confined to well-drained soils as A. arvensis, but is more definitely a plant of acidic conditions (Garrard & Streeter 1983). In Fermanagh, these conditions are also found locally on or near lakeshores and on river banks.

Fermanagh occurrence

The limited number of records that have accumulated in the Fermanagh Flora Database (18 finds in 14 tetrads) are mainly the work of RHN, facts that strongly suggest this rather insignificant-looking little species is under-recorded. Otherwise, as the tetrad map shows, it appears to be very local around the Tempo area, with very few (six or seven) records elsewhere in the county.

Additional to the first record are the following: Poll Beg District, NW of Boho, 11 June 1978, M.J.P. Scannell, DBN; all the remaining records involve RHN – Knockennis, 3 km NE of Brougher Mountain, 7 July 1988; Pubble Bridge, Tempo River, 1 October 1988; fen at Feddan Bog, 8 June 1992; fields at Largy Lough, 13 August 1992; sand pit at Pubble Bridge, 11 September 1994 & 20 August 1999, with RSF; Drumcreen, Ballinamallard River, 16 April 1995; roadside Ballyreagh, 5 km NW of Tempo, 31 December 1995, with HJN; roadside at Tempo, 13 April 1996; Tully, W of Edenmore, 21 June 1997, with RSF; N of Many Burns Bridge, Many Burns River, 3 May 1999; Pubble Forest, 1 December 2001; sandpit at Pubble Bridge, 28 August 2004, with RSF; Agnaglack, 20 April 2009, with HJN; Gublusk Bay, Lower Lough Erne, 28 February 2010; Killyreagh House near Tamlagh, 10 June 2010.

British and Irish occurrence

The New Atlas map shows the species widespread throughout both islands, but much more thinly scattered in Ireland, yet with a slightly greater presence in the south and the sunny south-east corner, both areas which attract more visitors and where the local recorders are more energetic than the norm (Preston et al. 2002). Thus the mapped distribution of A. australis across the whole of Ireland suggests probable under-recording in comparison with the situation in Britain.

European and world occurrence

It stretches northwards from a scattered presence in Spain and Portugal through W Europe to S Sweden and eastwards to NE Poland, the Carpathians and the Adriatic. Very local in the Balkans and present only on the W Mediterranean Isles (Minorca, Mallorca, Sardinia and Sicily), but also recorded on Madeira (Press & Short 1994; Sell & Murrell 2014). Beyond Europe, it occurs in Morocco and Algeria and is introduced in E & S parts of N America (Hultén & Fries 1986, Map 1156).

Threats

None.