Description from
Flora of China
Rosa pimpinellifolia Linnaeus var. subalpina Bunge ex Marschall von Bieberstein.
Shrubs small, 1–2 m tall. Branchlets red-brown, glabrous; prickles numerous, yellowish, straight, unequally long and thick, abruptly tapering to broadened base. Leaves including petiole 4–9 cm; stipules mostly adnate to petiole, free parts lanceolate, margin entire, glandular-pubescent, apex acute; rachis and petiole sparsely shortly prickly, glandular-pubescent; leaflets 7–9, oblong or elliptic, 1.5–2.5 × 0.8–1.7 cm, glabrous, abaxially with prominent veins, base subrounded or broadly cuneate, margin doubly serrate, apex acute or rounded-obtuse. Flowers solitary, rarely 2 or 3 and fasciculate, 2.5–3 cm in diam.; pedicel 1.5–2 cm, glabrous or glandular-pubescent; bracts ovate, margin glandular-pubescent, apex long caudate. Hypanthium ovoid or oblong, glabrous or sparsely stipitate glandular. Sepals 5, lanceolate, leaflike, abaxially densely glandular-pubescent, adaxially densely pubescent, margin entire. Petals 5, pink, obovate, base broadly cuneate, apex emarginate. Styles shorter than stamens, pubescent. Hip bright-red, oblong or ovoid, 1–1.5 cm in diam., glabrous or sparsely stipitate glandular, with persistent, erect sepals. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Jul–Sep.
One of us (Robertson) has seen no specimens of this species.
Scrub; 1100--1400 m. Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].