This section is from the book "British Wild Flowers - In Their Natural Haunts Vol5-6", by A. R. Horwood. Also available from Amazon: A British Wild Flowers In Their Natural Haunts.
The stem of this species is stout, with many widespreading, white hairs. The leaves are large, 5-lobed, with very long, narrow stipules, fringed with hairs. The leaflets are thick, leathery, with an ashy felt below when young, opaque and rough above, the terminal leaflet broadly egg-shaped, with a long, narrow point, with compound teeth. The panicle is blunt, stout, broad, very large, broadly cylindrical, the ultra-axillary top forming a corymb, the branches stout, nearly widespreading, the rachis, flower-stalk, and base of the sepals clothed with dense, yellowish-grey, soft hairs. The sepals have a long, narrow point, strongly bent back when the petals fall. The petals are large, bright-pink. The plant is very stout and hairy. It resembles most R. mollissimus.
The habitat of this species is wood borders, hedges, bushy and heathy places. The habit is nearly prostrate. The prickles are strong and short. The leaves are 5-lobed, finger-shaped. The leaflets are thick, soft, velvety beneath, convex, coarsely toothed. The panicle is long, truly pyramidal, with close, 1-3-flowered, short, widespreading branches in the long, ultra-axillary part. The rachis is straight and rigid. The petals are oval. The fruiting sepals are turned back. It flowers in July and August, and is a deciduous shrub. The soil is sandy, siliceous, etc. It is intermediate between R. villicaulis and R. leucostachys.
The habitat of this plant is wood borders, thickets, hedges, and rough banks. The habit is arching, prostrate. The stem is woolly and hairy, densely felted. The prickles are long and nearly straight, very strong. The leaflets are broad, softly yellow and white-felted below, round, wavy at the edge, with nearly simple, even, shallow teeth, the terminal leaflet nearly round, with a blunt point. The panicle is long, cylindrical. There are few stalked glands. The petals are round. The stamens are only just longer than the style. The fruiting sepals are bent back. The plant flowers in July and August, and is a deciduous shrub.
The stem of this plant has a dense mat of felt and long hair. The leaves have also a white felt below, and irregular deeply-cut teeth. The terminal leaflet is oval or roundish. The panicle is broad, very prickly, strongly developed. The rachis and flower-stalk are densely hairy and felted, with crowded, slender, large-based, sickle-like, and bent-down prickles. The petals are white. The plant differs from R. rusticanus in the long hairs on the stem and rachis with straight prickles, more hairy leaves, prickly panicle, white petals, and wide-spreading fruiting sepals, resembling also R. leucostachys, being a cross between the two.
The habitat of this species is woods and bushy places. The stem is densely hairy and pruinose. The leaves are 5-lobed, with 3 lobes radiating from a common centre, 2 lateral. They are greyish-green. The leaflets are not overlapping, irregularly lobed, toothed, ashy-felted, with prominent ribs beneath. The terminal leaflet is egg-shaped, with a long, narrow point. The panicle is narrowed above, the top blunt, with long lower branches, like secondary panicles. The rachis and flower-stalk are covered with very unequal stalked glands and small acicles. The plant resembles R. Gelertii, R. Ley anus, R. Drejeri, and R. scaber.
 
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