The roses pictured here
should not be
'Canary Bird.' Rosa xanthina f.
normalis Rehder & E.H. Wilson is the accepted name.
Rosa xanthina f.
spontanea Rehder is a synonym. Both are names for the
single-flowered form of the species that was introduced to American and European gardens by seed collected in 1907.
To complicate matters, Modern Roses 12 lists
R. xanthina spontanea as a synonym of 'Canary Bird.' 'Canary Bird' is a seedling of unknown parentage, at most a selection of the species but more likely a hybrid, because it was introduced in 1911,
before R. xanthina was known to have flowered in 1915 in an American botanical garden.
This species belongs to the Pimpinellifoliae section (styles free, shorter than the stamens, blooms solitary, without bracts). It has simply serrated leaflets that are
not glandular beneath, like
R. hugonis. The margins are obtusely serrate. The canes should have no bristles.
