The specimen with a trellis support at Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL, was labeled as Illinois Rose. This species is really found in savannah and along woodland edges rather than in the prairie. It is a shrub with some vine-like characteristics, and it does do some spreading by rhizomes and stolons. It grows about 5 to 7 feet high the most, but can grow higher and grows about 6 to 12 feet wide. Its alternate leaves are compound of 3 leaflets, though older growth can have 5 leaflets. Illinois Rose bears reddish winged stipules at the base of the compound leaf stem. The underside of the leaves have very fine hairs. It gets orange to red-orange to purplish-red fall color. The stems have relatively few thorns that are short, stubby, and slightly curved. The pink flowers fade to whitish and are about 2 to 3 inches wide that are mildly fragrant. It bears rosy-red hips. It is good to renew prune the shrub about every three years, and it blooms on new wood. It is native from Wisconsin to Connecticut to northern Florida to east Texas, and has naturalized a little beyond its first discovered native range, as into Minnesota. I like it! It is not nasty to touch. It is sold by a number of native plant nurseries as Prairie Moon and Possibility Place.

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