Rosa sertata is found from central China to Shanghai on the East China Sea. From seed collected by "Chinese" Wilson a plant was named and described in 1913 by the English botanist Robert Allen Rolfe. His Latin epithet "sertata" means garlands. Likely Rolfe is referring to the species elegantly drooping chains of flowers with "finely cut, daintily formed leaves." Indeed, sertata is a "handsome Rose."
"From "Roses in Colour and Cultivation", by T. C. Mansfield, 1947, facing p. 145: Rosa sertata (top left), 'Flora McIver' (center and right), 'Lady Penzance' (bottom left).
I collected these herbarium specimens from a plant at Quarryhill Botanic Garden, Accession # 1992.267 collected in Sichuan Province at an elevation of 9055 feet. Rolfe described sertata as having 7 to 11 leaflets but Quarryhill's specimen has 3 to 11 leaflets, averaging 7 per leaf. Leaflet number and other features of the leaf will be relevant to distinguish sertata from its much rarer variety, multijuga, found in only one location.
From "Curtis's Botanical Magazine", 1913, tab 8473: "Figs. 1 and 2, stamens; 3, a carpel; 4, ripe fruits: - all enlarged except 4, which is of natural size."
Courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library
