(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.