A deciduous shrub up to 6 ft high; young shoots not downy, becoming brown with age, usually unarmed or sometimes with a few scattered, mostly solitary prickles which are straight, slender, and 1⁄4 in. or less long. Leaves 2 to 5 in. long, consisting of three or five leaflets; rachis downy, glandular, furnished with a few tiny prickles. Leaflets ovate-oblong (the side ones stalkless), pointed, often doubly toothed, 1⁄2 to 2 in. long, 1⁄4 to 1 in. wide, dark green above, glaucous and downy beneath. Stipules edged with tiny glands. Flowers produced during July in corymbs of up to a dozen blossoms, each 3⁄4 to 1 in. across and borne on a slender glandular stalk 3⁄4 to 11⁄2in. long. Petals inversely heart-shaped, deep rose-pink, paling towards the base; anthers golden yellow. Receptacle obovoid, glandular. Sepals 1⁄3 to 3⁄4 in. long, downy, often widening at the apex. Fruits globose, 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 in. wide, coral-red, crowned by the persistent sepals. Bot. Mag., t. 8566.
Native of China, in the province of Hupeh, whence it was introduced to cultivation by Wilson in 1907, and of Shensi. It is a pretty rose both in flower and in fruit, distinct in its almost spineless branchlets and small flowers, which are normally borne in small separate clusters, not in a large compound inflorescence as shown in the Botanical Magazine. The leaves turn purplish red beneath in autumn.