Rosa acicularis var. albiflora X. Lin & Y. L. Lin; R. acicularis var. glandulifolia Y. B. Chang; R. acicularis var. glandulosa Liou; R. acicularis var. gmelinii (Bunge) C. A. Meyer; R. acicularis var. pubescens Liou; R. acicularis var. setacea Liou; R. fauriei H. Léveillé; R. gmelinii Bunge; R. granulosa Keller; R. korsakoviensis H. Léveillé.

Shrubs 1–3 m tall. Branchlets red-brown or purple-brown, terete, slightly curved, glabrous; prickles sparse to dense, terete, straight, to 4 mm, fine, evenly tapering to small base. Leaves including petiole 7–14 cm; stipules mostly adnate to petiole, free parts broadly ovate, abaxially pubescent, margin glandular serrate, apex acuminate; rachis and petiole pubescent, glandular-pubescent, and sparsely prickly; leaflets 3–7, broadly elliptic or oblong, 1.5–5 × 0.8–2.5 cm, abaxially pubescent, with prominent midvein and lateral veins, adaxially glabrous, with slightly concave midvein and lateral veins, base subrounded, rarely broadly cuneate, margin simply serrate or inconspicuously doubly serrate, apex acute or rounded-obtuse. Flowers solitary, or 2 or 3 and fasciculate, 3.5–5 cm in diam.; pedicel 2–3.5 cm, densely glandular-pubescent; bracts ovate or ovate-lanceolate, margin glandular serrate or incised, apex acuminate or caudate. Hypanthium ellipsoid, usually glabrous, rarely glandular-pubescent. Sepals 5, lanceolate, leaflike, abaxially pubescent, glandular, and sparsely bristly, adaxially densely pubescent, margin entire. Petals 5, pink, rarely white, fragrant, obovate, base broadly cuneate, apex emarginate. Styles free, shorter than stamens, pubescent. Hip red, pyriform, long ellipsoid, or obovoid, 1–1.5 cm in diam., with a distinct neck, shiny, glabrous or rarely slightly glandular, with persistent, erect sepals. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Jul–Sep. 2n = 28, 56.

This species is widely distributed in the N temperate zone and has a great morphological variation. The varieties described by various authors are difficult to distinguish, owing to the presence of intermediate forms, and are all reduced to synonymy for the time being in this account.

Betula forests, scrub, sunny slopes, roadsides; 400--1800 m. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia; N Europe, North America].