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Rosaceae family

Musk Rose Rosa moschata

Musk Rose is an introduced perennial shrub, found in the lower 48 states and Puerto Rico. It grows to 23 ft.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 7 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Height
23 ft
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Sub-canopy / understory layer — Sits in the understory of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~135 caterpillar species

Rosa supports ~135 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is an exceptional genus.

Recorded feeding on Rosa in North America, including:

Acharia stimulea · Saddleback Caterpillar Moth Achyra rantalis · Garden Webworm Moth Acleris albicomana · Red-Edged Acleris Acleris britannia · Brittania Moth Acleris fragariana · leafroller moth Acleris holmiana · leafroller moth
+ 8 more species →
Acleris laterana · leafroller moth Acleris minuta · Yellowheaded Fireworm Moth Acleris robinsoniana · Robinson's Acleris Acleris semipurpurana · Oak Leaftier Moth Acleris variegana · leafroller moth Acrobasis indigenella · Leaf Crumpler Moth Acrobasis tricolorella · Tricolored Acrobasis Moth Acronicta auricoma · Scarce Dagger
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
Wildlife & visitors 1 mammal

Open records of who else uses Musk Rose — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

Recorded eaten by 1 mammal species (fruit, seed, browse):

Semnopithecus ajax · Kashmir Gray Langur
Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (13) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[09] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[10] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)
[12] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[13] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
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PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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