A shrub up to 3(-4) m. Young branches chestnut-brown, glabrous, ofte shining. Prickles irregularly se t on the stems, subulate, straw-coloured, abruptly dilated at base, patent or declining, acicles and stalked glands absent. Leaflets (5-) 7-9, to 20 mm long, elliptic or obovate, acute or obtuse, glabrous on both sides or sparsely pubescent beneath, smooth or glandular, doubly or rarely simply serrate. Stipules normally with long, divergent auricles. Flowers solitary or 2-3, petals up to 30(-35) mm long, yellow, sometimes suffused with red below. Pedicels smooth or with stalked glands. Sepals usually with lateral lobes, rarely entire, dilated at apex, ascending or patent in fruit, persistent. Styles densely pubescent, forming large, compact head. Orifice broad. Mature hypanthium globose, red (?), often undeveloped.

Type: Africa, Egypt, described from cultivated specimen.

A-7 Chitral. Shoghor Gol, nearly midway from Shoghor to Karimabad, c. 3000 m, A. Ghafoor & S. Omer 2886 (KUH), Chitral: Turkho: 9200 ft, between 36/25 N – 72/22 E and 36/45 N – 73/37 E, Bowes Lyon 1029 (BM), Chitral: Otor Gol, S of Trich Mir, J. D. Stainton 2738 (BM), D-4 Quetta (cultivar ‘Bicolor’), 5500 ft, R. R. Stewart 28383, 28387 (KUH), Baluchistan, Quetta. Mission Bungalow Garden, 1800-1900, J. Lamond 1156 (E), Quetta, 600 t, Lace s.n. (E), Baluchistan, near Quetta, Schmid 1615 (RAW), E-4 Baluchistan, Ziarat, 8000 ft, R. R. Stewart s.n. (W).

Distribution: South-west and Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

Origin unknown, possibly a very old hybrid between Rosa kokanica and some species of section Cinnamomeae (Rosa webbiana?), often planted and naturalized. A form with double flower is cultivated as Rosa foetida ‘Persiana’, a form with red petals below is known as Rosa foetida ‘Bicolor’.