[APWG] Is "Rosa rugosa" a potentially invasive plant in NH?

[Richard Old]

Grace:
According to the Synthesis of the North American Flora, Rosa rugosa is
escaped from cultivation and established in 93 counties of 21 states. The
distribution is concentrated in the northeastern US including every state in
New England and is already reported for Stratford, Rockingham and Coos
counties in New Hampshire.  This same distribution can be found in the new
second edition of Flora of the Northeast (2007 University of Massachusetts
Press).
Regards,
Richard
 
Richard R. Old, Ph.D.
XID Services, Inc.
www.xidservices.com

-----Original Message-----
From: apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org
[mailto:apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of corgis
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 10:24 AM
To: apwg at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: [APWG] Is "Rosa rugosa" a potentially invasive plant in NH?


    Our NH State Forest Nursery is currently selling "Rosa rugosa" to NH
residents for planting in the spring of 2008. 
   I know the plant would be invasive (and, no doubt, already is) on our sea
coast. However, last year I  tangled with the NH State Cooperative Extension
Service when they included "Rosa rugosa" as an excellent plant for New
Hampshire in one of their books. They did not include a disclaimer that the
plant was possibly invasive for the NH sea coast. The authors of the
extension book that included "Rosa rugosa" emailed me that we had too small
a sea coast to be concerned.
    My bent is that the plant will eventually become invasive in New
Hampshire, whatever the size of our sea shore. I think that even though we
have a small sea shore, that it merits protection. My feeling is that our
state forest nursery shouldn't sell "Rosa rugosa."
    Am I off target here? Am I concerned for no reason?
    I have found information about the plant's invasiveness in NYC (the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden has it listed on their "The Worst Plants for the New
York Metropolitan Area" and CT (many sites), but the NH County Extension
forester I talked to this week wants more information.
    I have googled "Rosa rugosa" with little success. What I need is added
examples of the plant's potential damage to New Hampshire.
    Does anyone have suggestions? Thank you. I'd like to know how much
effort I should put into this issue.
Grace Lilly
pembrokes at ne.rr.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.plantconservation.org/pipermail/apwg_lists.plantconservation.org/attachments/20071211/18a970a5/attachment.html>