Shrub with usually climbing stems up to 10 m long. Young stems glabrous or pubescent, sometimes with stalked or subsessile glands. Prickles small, c. 5 mm long, brown, curved, irregularly se t on the stem. Leaflets 5-7(-9), variable in size and shape, 20-60(-90) mm long, narrowly ovate, narrowly ovate to (broadly) elliptic or rarely obovate, acute or acuminate at apex, dull green, glabrous or loosely pubescent above, paler and ± hairy beneath, simply serrate. Stipules narrow, often slightly incised, with very narrow, often diverging auricles. Flowers white, 30-50(-60) mm in diameter, in corymbs or panicles, exceptionally solitary. Pedicels pubescent and covered with stalked glands. Bracts narrow, very early caduceus. Sepals with long, narrow apex, usually with lateral lobes, reflexed after flowering, finally decicuous. Styles pilose, forming long column (often broken in fruit). Orifice very narrow. Fruit c. 10 mm long ovoid or subglobose, usually covered with stalked glands, red wh en mature.

Fl. Per.: June-July

Syntypes: Nepalia, Wallich s. n., Buchanan s. n.

A-7 Chitral, 35/51 N – 71/46 E 4800 ft, Bowes Lyon 635 (BM), Chitral village, 5000 ft, J. D. Stainton 2351 (BM), Chitral, Shishi Gol Bridge, c. 3 km from Drosh on way to Chitral, 1500 m, A. Ghafoor & S. Omer 2483 (KUH), B-7 Hazara. Above Dunga Gali, 8300 ft, R. R. Stewart (RAW), Hazara: Along Ddunga Gali, R. R. Stewart s.n. (RAW), Nathiagali – back to Dungagali: walking distance 3 miles, S.M.H.Jafri 3197 (KUH), Nathiagali, S.I.Ali 778 (KUH), Hazara Dist., Batrusi, M. Qaiser & S. Abedin 5625 (KUH), Changlagali, S. I. Ali 778a (KUH), Swat: between village Bahor and Shangla, c. 2200 m, A. Ghafoor & T. Ali 4044 (KUH), Swat: Khawazakhiela to Shangla, 1300 m, J. Lamond 1694 (E), Swat: Inter Khawazakhiela et Shangla, 1300-1900 m, K. H. Rechinger 30588 (W), Plants of Poonch, Gorrah, 5000-6000 ft, A. Rashid, E. Nasir & R. R. Stewart (RAW), c. 5 miles from Kaghan on way to Balakot, S. Omer, S. Nazimuddin & A. Wahid 735 (KUH), Hazara, Shogran, 7750 ft, S. M. A. Kazmi s.n. (KUH), 6 miles from Abbottabad on way to Nowshera, S. Abedin & M. Qaiser 8645 (KUH), B-8 Gilgit, 5000 ft, R. R. Stewart 26581 (RAW), Kashmir: Ganshibal, Liddar valley, O. Polunin 413 (B), Kashmir: Wangat Nullah, O. Polunin 778 (B), C-6 Rawalpindi Dist., Danoi, 4500 ft, Y. Nasir & S. I. Ali 9360 (RAW), Margalla Hills near Islamabad, Browicz & Zieliński 149 (KOR), Margalla Hills near Islamabad, A. Ghafoor 930 (KUH), Malana, c. 5 miles from Parachinar, S. Nazimuddin & S. Abedin 1070 (KUH), C-7 Murree Hills, 7000-8000 ft, R. R.Stewart 13907 (RAW), Murree Hills, S.M.H. Jafri 3005 (KUH), Murree Hills, S.M.H. Jafri & S.I. Ali 3047 (KUH), Murree, S.I. Ali 592, 632 (KUH), Murree Hills, Z.A. Hasnain s.n. (KUH), Murree Hills, between Burghan and Murree, Browicz & Zieliński 81 (KOR), Rawalpindi Dist.: Danoi, 4500 ft, Y. & E. Nasir (RAW), Ayubia, 14 miles from Murree, S. Nazimuddin & S. Abedin 1278 (KUH), Rawalpindi Dist.: Sektrar, 5000 ft., R. R. Stewart s.n. (KUH), Karot, 2300 ft., S. Abedin 2792 (KUH), Rawalpindi Dist.: Lehtrar, R. R. Stewart s.n. (KUH), C-8 c. 20 km from Palandri on the way to Rawalakot, T. Ali, M. Qaiser & M. A. Khan 288 (KUH), E-4 Ziarat, Quetta, S. Abedin 3274 (KUH).

Distribution: Afghanistan, Pakistan (Northern areas), Kashmir, India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan to S. W. China.

Rosa brunonii is a very variable species in all its characters but especially in the indumentum of stems and leaves, size and shape of leaflets as well as in number and size of flowers. In practice forms with pubescent stems and narrow pubescent leaflets are considered to be ‘typical’ Rosa brunonii, Whi le forms with glabrous stems and glabrous, broader leaflets are often separated as Rosa moschata Herrm. In spite of its variability all available Pakistani specimens (at hand) represent, in my opinion, one well-defined species and its dividing seems to be fully artificial.

Rosa moschata Herrm. was described in 1762 based on specimens cultivated in Europe but it is said to be of Asiatic, Persian origin. The identity of European Rosa moschata with the roses cultivated in south-west Asia remains, however, an open question. After h aving seen numerous specimens of the species collected in Pakistan and Kashmir, I suppose that all cultivated specimens from Afghanistan and Iran, identified earlier by me as Rosa moschata (Zieliński 1982), represent in fact Rosa brunonii, changed in cultivation by mutations, crossing and/or selection. According to G. S. Thomas (1983, Climbing roses old and new) the ‘true’ Rosa moschata blossoms in summer and autumn. Among available rather rich material from Pakistan and neighbouring countries I have found no specimen flowering later than in May (-June).

Walking-stick from the wood and rose water, attar (otto) is prepared from flowers. The plant is used in bilious infection and the root is reputed to be useful in eye diseases (Chadha et al., l. c. 65. 1972)