Shrubs climbing, 3–5 m tall, with long repent branches. Branchlets purple-brown, terete, glabrous; prickles scattered, curved, to 5 mm, stout, flat, gradually tapering to a broad base. Leaves including petiole 8–14 cm; stipules narrow, mostly adnate to petiole, free parts lanceolate, margin entire, sparsely glandular-pubescent, apex acuminate; rachis and petiole sparsely pubescent, glandular-pubescent, with scattered, small hooked prickles; leaflets 5–7, rarely 3 or 9, oblong or lanceolate, rarely obovate, 4–7 × 1.5–3 cm, abaxially subglabrous or puberulous along prominent veins, glandular punctate, adaxially glabrous, base subrounded or broadly cuneate, sometimes slightly oblique, margin simply serrate, rarely inconspicuously doubly serrate, apex acuminate. Flowers 25–35, 2–2.5 cm in diam., in compound corymb or panicle ca. 15 cm in diam.; pedicel sparsely glandular-pubescent, 2–3 cm; bracts ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, margin glandular-pubescent, apex acuminate. Hypanthium ovoid, glandular-pubescent. Sepals 5, deciduous, ovate-lanceolate, abaxially sparsely pubescent and glandular-pubescent, adaxially densely pubescent, margin entire, apex acuminate. Petals 5, fragrant, white, obovate. Styles connate into column, exserted, pubescent. Hip deep red, subglobose, ca. 8 mm in diam.; sepals reflexed, eventually deciduous. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Jul–Nov.

One of us (Gu) wonders if Rosa tatsienlouensis Cardot (Notul. Syst. (Paris) 3: 264. 1916), described from Sichuan (Kangding Xian), is identical with R. filipes. Further study is required.

Thickets, roadsides; 1300--2300 m. Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.