Description from
Flora of China
Rosa ernestii Stapf ex Bean; R. gentiliana H. Léveillé & Vaniot f. puberula Handel-Mazzetti; R. henryi Boulenger var. puberula (Handel-Mazzetti) Metcalf; R. moschata Herrmann var. hupehensis Pampanin; R. rubus var. yunnanensis H. Léveillé.
Shrubs creeping or scandent, or vines to 5–6 m. Branchlets terete, pubescent when young, glabrate when old; prickles scattered, curved, to 2 mm, stout, flat, gradually tapering to broader base. Leaves including petiole 8–15 cm; stipules mostly adnate to petiole, free parts lanceolate, pubescent, margin entire, often glandular, apex acuminate; rachis and petiole pubescent, with sparse small hooked prickles; leaflets 5 or 3, ovate-elliptic, obovate, or elliptic, 3–6(–9) × 2–4.5 cm, abaxially densely or sparsely pubescent or glandular, adaxially usually glabrous, rarely pubescent, base subrounded or broadly cuneate, margin acutely serrate, apex caudate, acute, or acuminate. Flowers 10–25 in a paniculate corymb, 2.5–3 cm in diam.; peduncle with pedicels 1.5–2 cm, pubescent and glandular-pubescent; bracts narrowly ovate, small, margin glandular, apex acuminate. Hypanthium globose or obovoid, pubescent and sparsely glandular-pubescent. Sepals 5, deciduous, lanceolate, both surfaces densely pubescent, abaxially glandular-pubescent, margin entire or with a few small lobes, apex long acuminate. Petals 5, white, fragrant, obovate, base broadly cuneate, apex emarginate. Styles connate into column, exserted, slightly longer than stamens, pubescent. Hip bright-red, purple-brown, or orange brown, subglobose, 8–10 mm in diam., shiny, mostly glabrous. Fl. Apr–Jun, fr. Jul–Sep.
Two forms may be recognized: f. rubus, which has leaflets abaxially eglandular, and f. glandulifera T. T. Yü & T. C. Ku (Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin 1(2): 15. 1981), which has leaflets abaxially densely glandular.
Scrub, grassy places, slopes, montane regions, cliffs, river banks, roadsides; 500--1300 m. Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.