Wild Rose Hike

Naturpark Diemtigtal - The best time to identify wild roses is in autumn when they bear fruit. You’re lucky if you find flowers and fruits on the same bush.

Why are wild roses actually so valuable? The blue beetle collects the pollen of wild roses as food in June, like many other insects. Wild roses often grow on stone piles. Here the weasel finds a welcome hiding place from predators and a breeding site. As a predator, the weasel catches small mammals such as field mice and thus eases mouse control for farmers. The shrike usually builds its nest in a dense thorn bush. From this exposed lookout, it spies and catches large insects. It impales these prey insects on thorns or spikes to tear them apart or keep them as a stock. In June, the common rose gall wasp lays its eggs in the leaf buds. The leaf cells react with a peculiar tissue enlargement, the gall, in whose chambers the larvae develop.

Use and harvest of rosehips
Wild rose fruits are harvested whole from mid-September to the end of October. To continue using the rosehips, the seeds must be removed.