Website/Catalog  (2018)  
 
Rosa foliolosa Nuttall ex Torrey & A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 460. 1840.
White prairie rose
Rosa ignota Shinners
Shrubs, forming thickets or not. Stems erect to deflexed, 3–6 dm, densely branched; bark dull reddish brown, sometimes green, glabrous; infrastipular prickles paired, erect, subulate, 2–5 × 0.5–1 mm, ˂base glabrous˃, internodal prickles or aciculi rare, sometimes absent. Leaves 3–7 cm; stipules 6–14 × 1.5–4 mm, auricles flared, 2–3 mm, margins entire or glandular-serrate, eglandular, surfaces glabrous, rarely puberulent, eglandular; petiole and rachis with pricklets, usually glabrous, stipitate-glandular; leaflets (5–)9(–11), terminal: petiolule 1–4(–6) mm, blade lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 14–25 × 3–7 mm, membranous, base long-cuneate, margins 1-serrate, ˂gland-tipped or eglandular˃, teeth 9–15 per side, gland-tipped, apex acute, abaxial surfaces light green, glabrous, eglandular, ˂exserted midveins sometimes with sparse pricklets, pubescent, stipitate-glandular˃, adaxial deep green, lustrous, glabrous. Inflorescences corymbs, 1(–5)-flowered. Pedicels erect, slender, 2–8 mm, glabrous, stipitate-glandular; bracts 2, lanceolate, 8–12 × 3–4 mm, margins entire, few stipitate-glandular, surfaces glabrous, eglandular. Flowers 3.5–4.5 cm diam.; hypanthium subglobose, globose, or ovoid, 4–4.5 × 2.5–4 mm, glabrous, usually densely stipitate-glandular, neck absent; sepals reflexed or spreading, lanceolate, 13–20 × 2–3 mm, tip 3 × 0.5 mm, margins pinnatifid, abaxial surfaces glabrous or puberulent, stipitate-glandular; petals single, white, rarely pink, 17–28 × (6–)10–18 mm; carpels 20–32, styles exsert 1–1.5 mm beyond stylar orifice (1.5–2 mm diam.) of hypanthial disc (3–4 mm diam.). Hips dull red, globose to depressed-globose, rarely urceolate, 9–10 × 7–9 mm, leathery, glabrous, densely stipitate-glandular, neck absent or insignificant; sepals deciduous, spreading to erect. Achenes mostly basal, 8–12, tan, 4(–5) × 1.5–2 mm. 2n = 14.
Flowering May–Jul. Blackland prairies, dry hillsides and woods, roadside and railroad verges, slopes and ravines, limestone and sandstone hills; 200–500 m; Ark., Kans., Okla., Tex.
The Kansas distribution of Rosa foliolosa is limited to Cherokee and Neosho counties, bordering Missouri and Oklahoma.
Rosa foliolosa is the only white rose native to North America; a pink form is known from Wise County, Texas (W. H. Lewis 1959). Rosa foliolosa is the most distinctive and geographically limited native Rosa in eastern North America, readily recognized by its white or, rarely, pink, narrow (6–18 mm) petals, lustrous, deep green and narrow (9 mm) leaflets, short pedicels (2–8 mm), leathery, dull red hips, and mostly basal achenes.

Newsletter  (Nov 2017)  
 
[From "A Rosa by any other name", by Don Gers, pp. 21-23]
The deep red flowered “R. foliolosa" common in the trade I believe is a R. palustris hybrid because it has curled stipules and sharply pointed leaflets while foliolosa Nuttall stipules are flat and its leaflets are rounded at the tips.

Newsletter  (Jan 2016)  Includes photo(s).
 
[From "The Rose Prize of Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and Rosa Adventures Along the Central Coast" by Don Gers, pp. 20-28]
..... I was not aware we had any white flowered native species roses in North America until I saw the entry for "White Prairie Rose", Rosa foliolosa. Probably the rarest wild rose in the United States disregarding the single colony of Rosa minutifolia on Otay Mesa in San Diego county which is very common south of the border in Baja, Mexico. Rosa foliolosa occurs in a few scattered colonies in north Texas, central Oklahoma and just over the borders into Kansas and Arkansas. Every character in the description of Rosa foliolosa from mostly single flowers on very short pedicels of rootspreading plants less than two feet tall with linear glossy leaves and paired thorns at nodes to its pure white flowers were identical to the SBBG Rowntree rose--we have a match! I thought I already knew R. foliolosa since I was growing a plant given to me by former Rose Letter Editor and student of Rosa, Pat Cole which she got from Hilliers in England. It's the red flowered form most often illustrated in Rose literature. Because it had the same tubular stipules as the Swamp Rose, Rosa palustris I assumed it was a western relative of that New England species. So now I believe the "Hilliers foliolosa" is probably a hybrid of palustris and foliolosa since its characters are a blend of both species.

Website/Catalog  (1 May 2010)  
 
R. foliolosa Nutt. ex Torr. & A. Gray (1840) "Between 1836 and 1841, while working for the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Thomas Nuttal contributed to the Flora of North America by Asa Gray and John Torrey. Nuttal described the white prairie rose (syn. the leafy rose), which will become R. foliolosa Nutt. Ex. Torr. and Gray.

Found in central and north central Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas, R. foliolosa has "stems less than a foot high, from a creeping rootstock. Flower very fragrant"[3]

It grows along roads and fences flowers white, sometimes tinged with pink. It has ferny foliage and is almost without a prickle ("thornless")." Engelmann, G., Gray, A. (1845). Plantae Lindheimerianae. Boston: Freeman and Bolles on www.rosarosam.com

"Rosa foliolosa Nutt. ex Torr. &: A. Gray, (full of leaves, profusely-leaved), WHITE PRAIRIE ROSE, LEAFY ROSE. Dwarf, rhizomatous shrub to 05 m tall; prickles few, very small, slender, straight or nearly so; leaflets glabrous or pubescent on veins beneath, 7 - 11; stipules glandular-ciliate; flowers usually solitary, short-pedicelled, ca. 4 cm across; petals white or rarely light pink. Prairies and open thickets or roadsides, calcareous clay or less often sandy soils; Blackland Prairie w to Grand Prairie; mainly nc TX s to Edwards Plateau. Mid-May-early"
Diggs, G. M., B. L. Lipscomb, R. J. O’Kennon. (1999). Shinners and Mahler’s Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas. Austin: BRIT.

Article (magazine)  (2009)  Page(s) 20.  
 
R. foliolosa Nutt. ex Torr. & Gray  Source TAMU [Collection of Texas A. M. University] Chromosome Number 21

Article (magazine)  (2001)  Page(s) 393.  
 
R. foliolosa Nutt. ex. Torr. et Samth. Ploidy 2x
Pollen fertility 99.2%
Selfed Fruit set 0%

Book  (1999)  Page(s) 133.  
 
Sam Gough, Victoria.  Parentage And All That.
In the case of R. foliolosa I raised 159 self pollinated seedlings and to my surprise, the range of seedling types was very large. Although they had much in common, a number of distinct types could be recognized. None were identical with Foliolosa. 

Website/Catalog  (1999)  Page(s) 955-956.  Includes photo(s).
 
Rosa foliolosa Nutt. ex Torr. & A. Gray, (full of leaves, profusely-leaved), WHITE PRAIRIE ROSE, LEAFY ROSE. Dwarf, rhizomatous shrub to 0.5 m tall; prickles few, very small, slender, straight or nearly so; leaflets glabrous or pubescent on veins beneath, 7-11; stipules glandular-ciliate, flowers usually solitary, short-pedicelled, ca. 4 cm across, petals white or rarely light pink. Prairies and open thicket or roadsides, calcareous clay or less often sandy soil; Blackland Prairie W to Grand Prairie, mainly nc Tx s to Edward Plateau Mid-May-early Jul. [ed. note: this Flora covers a portion of north-central Texas roughly represented by as a "U" with the base at Austin, the NW corners at Abilene and Wichita Fall, and the NE corner at Red River.]

Book  (Nov 1998)  Page(s) 11.  
 
Rosa foliolosa Thornless...its flowers have petals of unequal size.

Book  (1988)  Page(s) 150.  
 
location 150/2, R. foliolosa Nutt., CAROLINAE, southeast USA, 1880, light red, single, fragrant, medium size, solitary or cluster-flowered, bushy, to 4 m, few prickles, very hardy, tolerates drought, dark green small matte foliage, 5-7 leaflets, orange-red medium size matte rounded to pear-shaped fruit, upright persistent sepals, many hips