Guide

Look closerPlants

Red rose hips on wild rose canes

November to February

Wild rose shrubs hold red fruits called hips on their thorny canes as the leaves fall and on into winter. Birds and mammals eat them when other food is scarce.

Why this time of year

Once the leaves thin out, the red hips show clearly against the stems, and many stay on the canes into winter while animals rely on them.

How to notice it

  1. Scan a meadow edge, a roadside thicket or a woodland edge for arching thorny canes carrying small red fruits.
  2. If leaves are still on, look where a leaf stalk joins the stem: fringed, comb-like flaps (stipules) there mark multiflora rose, an invasive.
  3. Stand still and watch from a distance for birds landing to feed on the hips. Look, do not pick.

Try this with kids: Can you find a rose cane with red hips and count how many hips are on one branch?

Word to know: A “hip” is the fruit that forms on a rose after the flower is finished.

Safety

  • Rose canes have sharp thorns; look with your eyes and keep hands back.
  • Do not eat wild fruit without an expert; this card is for looking only.

Sources

  • gobotany.nativeplanttrust.orgNative Plant Trust Go Botany: Rosa multiflora present, invasive, prohibited in Massachusetts; meadows, fields, thickets, disturbed habitats; stipules fimbriately or pectinately toothed; fruit fleshy.
  • lhprism.orgLower Hudson PRISM: small red rose hips persist through the winter; consumed by birds including ruffed grouse, wild turkey, cedar waxwing, American robin; fringed stipule at base of each leaf. Leaves and hips consumed by many mammal species; hips may be especially valuable to wildlife in winter; fringed stipules are its primary feature distinguishing it from native roses.
  • plants.ces.ncsu.eduNC State Extension: Virginia rose hips persist into winter; native to eastern North America.
  • plants.ces.ncsu.eduNC State Extension: Carolina (pasture) rose red hips a food source for songbirds, quail, wild turkey and small mammals in fall and winter.
  • ctaudubon.orgConnecticut Audubon: Virginia rose fruit that lingers into winter provides a food source for birds.

Checked against these sources on October 9, 2026.

In the guide for November, December, January, February

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