A few flowers remain on our Rosa rugosa bushes, as you see, while the plants’ rose hips are now flourishing. The preferred pronunciation of the plant’s scientific name is “ROW-sa RUE-go-sa.“ Rosa, derives from the Latin for rose and rugosa, means wrinkled, referring to the plants’ leaves. It has many common names, including Beach Rose, Beach Tomato, Sea or Seaside Tomato, Shrub Rose. Wild Rose, Rugosa Rose, and Japanese Rose.
These plants were imported from Asia to retard erosion along our seashores, which they are good at. Unfortunately, they didn’t understand that they were supposed to stay on selected beach edges and they negatively impacted important dunes, birds’ nests and turtle egg laying, while also invading inland and creating unwanted thickets that have to be removed by bulldozers. They’re listed as invasive plants of special concern in Maine and sales of them are banned here.
Nonetheless, they’re here in abundance and their hips are an excellent source of vitamin C and other antioxidants. These seed pods can be used to make jams, jellies, syrups, and other products. Rose hips reportedly were used in World War II, when citrus fruits became scarce in England, to prevent scurvy, especially in children.
By the way, the use of word “hips” to describe rose seed pods is not because early biologists thought that these objects looked like the rear view of big-butted people. Historians think that the word likely is derived from the Old English word “hiope,” meaning the seed pod of a wild rose. Which is what they are, no butts about it. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 25, 2025.)