The multiflora rose is a member of the rose family and is native to Japan, Korea, and eastern China. It is a thorny perennial shrub with leaves that each have five to eleven sharply toothed leaflets. Multiflora rose flowers in may or june. The flowers range from white to pink and grow in clusters. The rose hips form during the summer and remain over the winter. Birds eat the rose hips thus distributing the seeds that the hips contain. The plant reproduces via these seeds and through root sprouting. One plant may produce as many as a million seeds a year and the seeds may remain able to germinate for as many as twenty years.

Multiflora rose was introduced from Japan as rootstock for ornamental roses. It was then used for erosion control and as living fences to keep in livestock.

Multiflora rose can form dense thickets that crowd out native plants. It has invaded the eastern half of the United States and Oregon and California.

To kill the plant cutting or mowing it down can be done three to six times per growing season for two to four years. Application of systemic herbicides to recently cut plants makes this more effective. The area must be watched to ensure that the seeds in the soil don’t germinate and repopulate the area.

Plants that are commonly mistaken for multiflora rose are: pasture rose (Rosa carolina); swamp rose (Rosa palustris); Allegheny blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis); flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus). It is always best to contact a cooperative extension in your area to make sure your identification is correct and this will also let them know the areas that the plant has invaded.

(From: http://www.nps.gov/plants/ALIEN/fact/romu1.htm and http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/2509.htm)