Dog rose or Sweet briar: how to tell them apart?
Dog rose and Sweet briar look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.
⚡ The quick answer
Dog rose
Rosa canina
Sweet briar
Rosa rubiginosa
The two look very similar and hybridise readily in the wild. The best clue remains the smell: when crushed, the sweet briar leaf gives off a distinct apple scent, absent in the dog rose, whose leaves are odourless.
🍃 Leaves
Compound, 5 to 7 toothed leaflets
Compound, 5 to 9 finely toothed ovate leaflets, covered in glandular hairs; when crushed, they give off a distinct apple scent, absent in the dog rose.
🌸 Flowers
Pale pink to white, five petals, fragrant
Pale pink, white base, yellow stamens, five petals, 1.8 to 3 cm across, grouped in corymbs of 2 to 7 flowers.
🍎 Fruits
Red to orange false fruits, ovoid to almost round depending on the form, called rose hips, generally 1 to 2 cm; they contain many achenes covered in irritant hairs.
Globular to ovoid rose hips, red, about 1 to 1.5 cm, persisting on the shrub in winter.
🪵 Bark
Arching stems with hooked prickles broad at the base
Upright to arching stems, with many unequal hooked prickles, often mixed with glandular bristles.
📏 Size
1 to 3 m tall, arching thorny stems
1 to 2.5 m tall, dense bushy habit
🗺️ Habitat
Hedges, waste ground, woodland edges
Hedges, woodland edges and scrub on well-drained chalky soils, in sunny to partly shaded positions.
⚠️ Toxicity
The pulp, once cleared of seeds and hairs, can be used as food, but the internal hairs are very irritant and must not be eaten.
No notable toxicity known; the rose hips are edible (as with the dog rose, the internal hairs of the achenes are irritant and must not be eaten).
🔎 And from the Sweet briar side
The two look very similar and hybridise readily in the wild. The best clue remains the smell: when crushed, the sweet briar leaf gives off a distinct apple scent, absent in the dog rose, whose leaves are odourless.
🌿 Go further
Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.