Shrubs to 2 m tall. Branchlets erect or spreading, slender; prickles paired at base of leaves, sparse, terete, straight, to 8 mm, slender, abruptly narrowing to elliptic base. Leaves including petiole 4–8 cm; stipules mostly adnate to petiole, free parts ovate, margin glandular serrate, shortly acuminate; rachis and petiole sparsely pubescent, glandular-pubescent, shortly prickly; leaflets 7–9, suborbicular, obovate, or elliptic, 1–2.5 × 0.6–1.5 cm, abaxially pubescent or rarely puberulous along midvein, adaxially glabrous or pubescent, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin simple or doubly serrate, teeth glandular or not, apex rounded-obtuse or acute. Flowers solitary, or 2 or 3 and fasciculate, 2–3 cm in diam.; pedicel not exceeding 1 cm, glandular-pubescent or not; bracts 1 or 2, ovate, glabrous, margin glandular serrate, apex acute or shortly caudate. Hypanthium obovate, glandular-pubescent. Sepals 5, ovate-lanceolate, abaxially glandular-pubescent, adaxially puberulous, margin entire or 1- or 2-lobed, apex caudate. Petals 5, pink, broadly obovate, base cuneate, apex emarginate. Styles free, shorter than stamens, densely yellowish pubescent. Hip dark red, ovoid, ca. 1 cm in diam., glandular-pubescent or not, with a short neck at apex, often with persistent, erect sepals. Fl. May–Jul, fr. Jul–Oct.

Three varieties are recognized here. Rosa nanothamnus Boulenger (Bull. Jard. Bot. État 13: 206. 1935), described from Xinjiang, is very similar to R. giraldii and differs only in having larger prickles, equaling or longer than the largest leaflets, and crenate leaflet margins. Further study is needed to ascertain whether R. nanothamnus should be treated as a separate species or a fourth variety of R. giraldii.

Scrub, slopes; 700--2000 m. Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan.