Rosa californica Cham. & Schlect.
California wild rose

Family:  Rosaceae

Habit:  Shrub 8 to 25 dm., often thicket forming; erect stems with recurved prickles; flowers generally pink.

Distribution:  Found in fairly moist places, canyons, and near streams in cismontane plant communities below 6000 feet, from Baja California to southern Oregon.

Seed unit:  Hip, 8 to 20 mm. wide.

Seed:  Bony achenes, 3 to 4 mm., enclosed in a fleshy, generally reddish hypanthium. Achenes are rounded, triangular and oblong, usually with a rounded back and two flattish faces joined into an edge bearing a shallow, narrow groove; yellowish to brown; wall woody and thick.

Embryo:  Foliar embryo with woody seed coat.

Purity instructions:   Pure seed definition:
AOSA:  PSU #32 – Intact dry indehiscent fruit whether or not a seed is present.  Seed with or without seed coat.  Piece of broken seed larger than one-half the original size.

Lab notes:  Samples usually consist of dried fruits (hips).  Hips are planted as the seed unit.  The hip contains one to several achenes, but is counted as one unit. 

Average pure seed units per gram:  22 seed units per gram (based on AOSA pure seed units only from 10 samples received for testing from 1993 to 2004).                                           

Range of percent pure seed:   28% to 99%

Range of percent inert:  1% to 71%

Description of inert:  Plant material, dead insects, broken seed.

Planting instructions:  400 seeds, T, 21 days @ 20°C; for fresh and dormant seed, prechill recommended.