Native rose, Rosa Carolina, smothered by the exotic rose.
“Multiflora rose provides lots of nectar and pollen for insects and it’s a good nesting site for birds; but those Native Plant Fundamentalists (NPF) will not admit its value;” ~or at least, so went a conversation recently observed on that mighty purveyor of information: Facebook. Two strands of thought arise immediately from this declaration; one relating to the epithet, and one relating to the plant itself, Rosa multiflora. Let us see if something useful can result from either the argument, or the strands.
“Fundamentalist” when used outside the religious sphere, is almost always used pejoratively, to insinuate that philosophies being held are literal-minded or carrying a pretense of being the sole source of objective truth. But the in plant world there exists a very wide range of people who associate with the idea that native plants should be conserved in natural areas and used in landscapes more widely.
Sweet shrub, (Calycanthus floridus), another native popular with homeowners and eradicated from woodlands by multiflora rose.
Some people are happy to just stick a couple of milkweeds in a pot to help monarchs, some people want to convert their whole yard or community park to natives. In those yards and parks, some people will use only regionally local native plants, some will order native plants grown by nurseries in other states. Some will use cultivars, some won’t. Some will allow a few exotics in the mix if they aren’t invasive, and some will not. Those engaged in land management – forests, public lands, natural areas – have similar divisions of thought about what should constitute true restoration and preservation of native plants. So we see that the use of the term ‘fundamentalist’ when applied to the native plant advocates does not have a very closely held profile.
Within the native plant movement, are there some people who are more strident and vociferous in making their opinions known? Perhaps there are, but this a personality type, not a tenant of the native plant movement. As in any field of endeavor, those who know and can communicate the truth without antagonizing their audience, stand the best chance. To create a believer, you first have to create a listener.
What then, do you say to the person who thinks multiflora rose is a good plant, and that you are a NPF if you think otherwise? (Um, no, you can’t say that.) You might pay heed to the biblical injunction: “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him.” Your conservation could progress in this way:
Yes, it does provide pollen for a wide variety of insects. It was actually imported on purpose (from China, Japan, and Korea) because of its disease resistance, as a rootstock for ornamental roses. The USDA Soil Conservation Service actually promoted its use for erosion control programs, and wildlife habitat enhancement programs, because many animals do use it.
You want thorns? Native hawthorns, (Crataegus) have thorns! If they survive multiflora rose.
But what happened next was neither foreseen nor intended. The multiflora rose escaped cultivation and ran rampant. Bearing perfect flowers (They are monoecious, having male and female parts on the same flower.) they can self-fertilize, and an individual plant can produce up up to 500,000 seeds each year, seeds staying viable for to 20 years in the soil. Plus they reproduce vegetatively: broken stems, and canes lying along the ground can produce new offshoots. And because it both leafs out much earlier, and holds its leaves longer than most most natives, it gains a tremendous advantage in obtaining and storing food and energy. And birds do eat, and spread, the rose hips. Thus the multiflora rose forms dense thickets and spreads widely, including climbing upward to 15 feet, to smother out everything in its path. Sixteen states now list it as an invasive species.
On the left, Lindera benzoin, spicebush; needed by spicebush swallowtails for their caterpillar babies; being overtaken by Multiflora rosa. Note that while the spicebush is in bloom for early pollinators, the rose, which will not bloom for a couple of weeks, has already leafed out, getting a head start on growth. ~Photo by Rod Simmons
And here is where the crux of the matter lies. When you have Rosa multiflora forming monocultures by killing everything else, what do you have? You have loss. You have lost the native plants that would have been filling the bill instead. You have lost the other thorny plants of refuge, the other flower-bearing shrubs, forbs, and grasses that would have provided nectar, pollen, and seeds. They would have provided them to a wider variety of animals, and they would have provided the right form of food at the right time.
The native bee, Andrena erigeniae, must have Spring Beauty; either this Claytonia virginica or the Claytonia caroliniana in the spring.
The spring ephemerals that are blooming abundantly in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast right now come to mind immediately. This entire group is out-competed by multiflora rose; they can’t penetrate the root thickets, or complete their life cycles before the rose’s leaves shut out the sun. That will be a loss for many of the specialist bees and early arriving pollinators, not to mention the many people who count these blooms among nature’s finest treasures.
And the nesting birds? The most critical food needed for fledglings, caterpillars, will not be present in any quantity on the multiflora rose, whose natural enemies in this country include only a few rusts and galls. This means the birds nesting in it must range longer distances to obtain the necessary food , depleting energy and nestling success.
Smilax spp. the native greenbriers are fruitful and have great thorns for protecting birds!
Here are just some of the vines, supporting many caterpillars, butterflies, and seed eaters, too, that will not be present in the rose thicket: none of the various native grapes and smilaxes; Virginia creeper; the native coral honeysuckle, clematis, and hydrangea; passion vine; jessamine; cross vine. Less is not more.
Shrubs too numerous to list are missing from multiflora rose thickets; the viburnums, serviceberry, elderberry, and vaccinium species; native azaleas and rhododendrons; hypericums, sumacs. All of these natives support huge numbers of lepidoptera, bees, sawflies, and moths, many more than what the single species, Rosa mulitflora, can support. No monarchs, fritillaries, swallowtails or skippers will be able to raise their young or provide caterpillars for the fledglings in the multiflora rose thicket. And because the multiflora will continue to consume wide swaths of land, its benefits overall are completely wiped out. As its biodiversity is reduced, so is the resiliency and productivity of the ecosystem.
No one doubts that nature will evolve, that the plants and animals here on earth will continue to adapt to changing circumstances. But in order to adapt, they have to be here. And the other thing no one can doubt is that we are losing species, plants and animals at an ever faster rate; our period of opportunity for slowing the decline in numbers is dwindling. So, my friend, the choice of what we keep is ours to make – for a little while.
Shall we have viburnums and hog peanut and native azaleas and elderberries…..or…..multiflora rose?
© 2015, Suzanne Dingwell. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. We have received many requests to reprint our work. Our policy is that you are free to use a short excerpt which must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Please use the contact form above if you have any questions.
