An erect shrub to about 8 ft high, though usually not much more than half that height, of suckering habit; stems and branches armed with scattered straight or slightly decurved prickles, only very rarely mixed with needles and bristles. Leaflets of firm texture, five or seven, rarely nine, 1 to 13⁄4 in. long, elliptic to broadly so, usually acute or acuminate, glabrous above, more or less glandular and sometimes downy beneath, teeth compound-glandular, up to thirty on each side; rachis and petiole glandular, with or without down. Flowers in June or July, up to 3 in. across, light to rich rosy pink, produced singly or in twos or threes, sometimes in corymbs of up to eight. Pedicels up to 11⁄2 in. long, clad with glandular bristles or needles which sometimes extend on to the receptacle. Sepals glandular on the back, the outer ones with up to six long lateral gland-edged appendages. Stigmas hairy, united into a large, rounded head. Fruits globose or slightly egg-shaped, bright red, shedding the sepals when fully ripe.
Native of Europe from central France eastward through Central Europe and N.W. Italy to the Balkans and S.W. European Russia; and of Asia Minor and the Caucasus. The plants of western Europe received many names before it was discovered that they belonged to this species, first described from the Ukraine early in the 19th century. R. jundzillii is one of the most distinctive and handsome of the European roses. Boulenger points out that it is really quite near to R. gallica and sometimes difficult to distinguish from hybrids between that species and R. canina. Although glandular, it is not aromatic, or at the most faintly turpentine-scented, and this character suffices to distinguish it from the sweet brier, to which it bears a superficial resemblance. It was at one time thought to be a native of Britain, but the plants so identified are a form of R. tomentosa.