natural chicago
Bloom Naturally in the Midwest Summer
Above and below: The native prairie or climbing rose (Rosa setigera) blooms at Moraine Hills State Park, and attracts pollinators, including bees.
by Sheryl DeVore
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eginning in June, public and private rose gardens add beauty to the region with varied hues, shapes and fragrances. Humans created those roses through hybridization and cultivation. Nature also has created roses that bloom in the region. They’re called species roses and, according to the Chicago Botanic Garden (ChicagoBotanic.org), “They’re hardy, indestructible, disease-resistant (and) carefree.” The species roses typically have five petals and produce large rose hips in the fall that wild animals eat. “A species rose is one that exists naturally in nature. It’s there all on its own, through evolution,” says Rory Klick, a retired horticulture and plant ecology professor at the College of Lake County (clcillinois.edu), in Grayslake. “The non-species roses, the hybrids and cultivars, are not as easy to care for,” she adds. “They’re persnickety about fertility and moisture requirements, and they can be disease-prone. They’re higher maintenance and they don’t always attract the pollinators like species roses do.” Species roses also 38
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have thorns like cultivated roses. More than 150 species of roses exist in the world, some in North America, others in Asia, Europe and Africa. Fossils show wild roses grew at least 35 million years ago, according to the University of Illinois Extension Service. Wild roses have been hybridized and cultivated since Roman times to produce the familiar roses bought at garden shops called hybrid teas, floribunda and grandiflora. The human-made roses
Photo by Sheryl Devore
Native Wild Roses
were cultivated to bloom longer, produce more petals and come in many colors. More than 20,000 hybrids of wild roses have been developed, with hundreds of new ones each year, according to AmericanMeadows.com. Klick enjoys all kinds of roses, but prefers planting species roses in her garden. “Some of the recent hybrid roses are more disease-resistant,” she admits, “but with those roses, you’re still losing a lot of the pollinator value. And one of the beautiful things about species roses is they produce those hips late in the season in fall.” When the petals open, pollinators enter the center part of the flower to seek and transfer pollen. “That forms the rose hip, which is a little red or blue fruit,” Klick explains. “I harvest those hips and steep them as tea. Nature knows the timing of things; when the rose hips are around, you can snip them off, muddle them in the bottom of your cup and steep in hot water, and it gives this rosy pink, citrusy tea. It’s also very high in vitamin C.” Four species roses native to Illinois that grow in the Chicago region include Rosa palustris, called swamp rose, Rosa carolina, called Carolina or pasture rose, Rosa setigera, called prairie rose, and Rosa blanda, called wild smooth rose, according to Randy Nyboer, a retired botanist with the Illinois Natural History Survey (inhs.illinois.edu). It’s best to stick to the Latin names, Nyboer says, because there are so many different common names for the species. For example, Rosa setigera is sometimes called wild climbing rose or Illinois rose. Rosa blanda has been called early wild rose, and the name pasture rose has been used for several of these species. Rosa blanda, early wild rose or smooth wild rose, grows in sunny, somewhat moist spots. It’s one of few rose species that are nearly thornless. Rosa palustris, or swamp rose, grows in marshes in northern Illinois, as well as in bald cypress swamps in southern Illinois. Rosa carolina, or Carolina rose, grows throughout the state in dry to moist prairies, fields and dry woods. Rosa setigera, or pasture rose, grows larger than Carolina rose and is related to wild raspberries and blackberries. “It has arching, trailing canes or branches,” Klick says. This species tolerates the hot, dry weather.
