The wild ancestor of several cultivars it grows from Iceland to Central Asia, favouring the sand-dunes cliffs and heath land of the coasts, so why is it the 'Scotch Rose'? It is not the white Jacobite rose, that is the cultivar R. alba maxima, nor is it the most common of our wild roses, from my imprecise observations driving down the road in the summer that would seem to be Rosa sherardii, the deep pink Northern Downy Rose. As far as I can deduce it is the 'Scotch Rose' because it was first brought into cultivation by the nurserymen Robert Brown and his brother, in Perth.

In 1793 they transplanted some wild roses from the Hill of Kinnoull into their nursery. By the selection of seed from mutant flowers they had produced 8 double varieties by 1803. The process was then taken over by a Glasgow firm who from the Perth stock produced more than a hundred varieties of cultivar. These cultivars became very popular in Scotland; perhaps because they bloom very early, in England it had less favour, perhaps because of its short season. So maybe it is Scots because we like it, not so bad a reason. It is also very prickly which may have something to do with it.

The cultivated forms are now rather rare, displaced by the often ghastly ill-proportioned hybrid teas of modern commerce. The wild roses still grow in profusion along the Moray coast.

The English name is from the fact that the general form of its small leaves, with seven or nine leaflets to each leaf, is very similar to those of the Salad Burnet (Poterium sanguisorba - L) and the Burnet Saxifrage (Pimpinella saxifraga - L.).

Non-medical uses of burnet rose
The (almost black) hips can be eaten raw or cooked. They are small but sweet and pleasant tasting. Some care has to be taken when eating this fruit, like all rose hips they contain a layer of irritant hairs around the seeds, the source of the 'itching powder' once beloved by naughty boys. The seed is a good source of vitamin E, it can be ground into a powder and mixed with flour or added to other foods as a supplement after careful removal of the seed hairs. A pleasant tasting fruity-flavoured tea is made from the fruits, it is very high in vitamin C, a richer source than R. canina, which as was discovered in 1934 (just in time for World War 2, and their important deployment in rose hip syrup) has four times as much as blackcurrant and twenty times as much as oranges. In the middle-ages rose hips were a popular tart filling for banquets, the necessary preparation is fairly complex and if this species were used the black colour might be a little off putting. They were also used in this period in a sauce to accompany meat, 'sawse sarzyne/saracen sauce' also white rose petals were a major ingredient in the desert 'rosee'.

With the juice of the hips silk and muslin may be dyed peach colour, and with the addition of alum, a deep violet (said to be rather fugitive).

The plants habit and thorniness make a good addition to hedges with a serious discouraging intent.

Medicinal uses of burnet rose
Nutritional supplement, Cancer.
Definitons of medical actions

The fruit of many members of this genus are a very rich source of vitamins and minerals, especially in vitamins A, C and E, flavanoids and other bio-active compounds. They are also a fairly good source of essential fatty acids, which is fairly unusual for a fruit. It is being investigated as a food that is capable of reducing the incidence of cancer and also as a means of halting or reversing the growth of cancers.

Sources:
Plants For A Future, www.pfaf.org/index.html,
Flora Celtica, www.floraceltica.com/, Flora Celtica is an international project based at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh,
The Really WILD Food Guide, www.countrylovers.co.uk/wildfoodjj/index.htm
J. Sabine, Description and Account of the Varieties of Double Scotch Roses, cultivated in the Gardens of England, Trans. Royal Horticultural Society, 1822.