Rosa canina L. s.s., Dog-rose
Account Summary
Native, occasional. European temperate, but widely naturalised.
21 June 1985; EHS Habitat Survey Team; marsh to E of Inishroosk Td.
April to October.
Problems and confusion regarding the true identity of early records has meant that pre-1985 finds without vouchers have had to be discarded. The remaining Fermanagh records are located in just 19 tetrads scattered across the western half of the VC, as shown in the distribution map. The habitats represented include the margins of woods (often by water), scrub, hedges, limestone cliffs and turloughs. At present, R. canina s.s. can only be described as occasional, although RHN and the current author (RSF) are confident that bushes are frequently over-looked, or more often for convenience they are lumped into the Dog-rose species aggregate. On the other hand, in the Fermanagh Flora Database there are also at least 25 records that can be apportioned to the four subgroups recognised by the Roses Handbook (1993) and New Flora of the BI (1991 & 1997), and for whatever they are worth (a matter RHN and the current author (RSF) do not feel strongly about either way) and few as they are, they appear in the frequency ranking Pubescentes, Lutetianae, Dumales and Transitoriae. In view of all this, RHN and RSF believe that a little more work directed at specific rose identification would quickly confirm R. canina s.s. to be a widespread and common species in Fermanagh. Having said this, the recently published critical account of R. canina published in the Flora of Great Britain and Ireland by Sell & Murrell (2014) recognises and names no fewer than 38 varieties of this species, indicating just how much work on roses is required in Fermanagh to meet such a challenging level of variation.
The New Atlas map suggests that R. canina is common and very widespread in both B & I, although even at the hectad scale it is not a ubiquitous species. The hectad map supports Graham & Primavesi's (1993) view that while R. canina s.s. is the commonest rose in most of B & I, it tends to be replaced by R. caesia further north, especially in N Scotland. Since R. canina s.s. prefers well-drained, calcareous soils and tolerates only moderately acid conditions, it is largely excluded from the wet, peaty or silica-rich substrates heavily predominant in N & W Scotland and W & C Ireland.
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.