Rosehips are a nutritious functional food and ripe in fall

It’s autumn, and it’s rosehip season—time to gather the fruits of the last roses of summer. Even if you have not been bingeing on the History Channel’s Alone series (not something I would ever do, of course), where hungry contestants wolf rosehips straight from their branches, you probably know that these plump red seed capsules are edible and revered for their nutritional benefits. Rosehips are high in antioxidants and vitamins. You may also have heard that they can be fiddly to work with and take some trouble to prepare. And if you’re in tune with your local flora, you may be aware, too, that some rose species, highly invasive, don’t play well with their botanical neighbors.

Read on for an easy rosehip recipe that includes optimism, exercise, and virtue. We’ll also identify two invasive rose species and make an easy syrup whose main demand upon you is the ability to shake a Mason jar. It couldn’t be more simple.

Photography by Marie Viljoen.

Two introduced shrubs that have naturalized in many regions of the United States are multiflora (Rosa multiflora) and beach roses (Rosa rugosa). Both are so ubiquitous that you’d be forgiven for assuming they belong (imagine a beach without beach roses). Both species are native to East Asia.

In early summer frothy hedgerows of invasive multiflora roses burst into bloom along roadsides and on woodland edges. Their blossoms are beautiful and they smell good. The rose was introduced to the US in the 19th century as hardy rootstock for grafted ornamental roses and later planted to control erosion and contain livestock within living barriers. The roses scramble up other shrubs and trees for support, weighing them down and creating shady, impenetrable thickets. Habitats are altered, and native species can suffer.

Many birds relish rosehips, especially once frost has softened them and bletted their tannins. As birds travel, seed is dispersed, and the spread continues.

The beach rose shrubs that light up shorelines in summer were imported for their beauty and hardiness: their wide, single flowers, and fatly attractive hips combined with their adaptability to challenging urban conditions (where nutrient-poor soil often goes hand in hand with lack of water) made these East Asian native roses very appealing. Rosa rugosa now colonizes shorelines where it thrives, disrupting native plant communities.