A vigorous deciduous shrub, up to 8 ft high, with erect, unarmed stems, and peeling bark; young shoots downy and slightly glandular. Leaves simple, five-lobed, vine-like, 4 to 8 (or more) in. across, irregularly toothed, downy on both sides especially beneath; leaf-stalk 2 to 5 in. long, set with glandular hairs. Flowers pure white, 11⁄2 to 2 in. across, borne three to ten in terminal clusters during June, and continuing for several weeks; the flower-stalk is glandular-hairy and the calyx is very downy, each lobe contracted at the apex into a short tail. Fruits large, hemispherical and flattened, red; said to be sometimes pleasantly flavoured in the wild. Bot. Mag., t. 3453.
Native of N. America and N. Mexico; introduced by Douglas in 1827. Very similar in its growth and foliage to R. odoratus, but easily distinguished by its white flowers in smaller clusters; the shoots, too, are not so conspicuously downy and glandular, and are darker coloured. Like that species it forms, when left to itself in good soil, dense thickets, which should be overhauled every winter and the worn-out stems cut out. Easily increased by pulling old plants to pieces. Fruits ripen most seasons from the earliest flowers, but are insipid and worthless in this country.