Abstract
Rosa roxburghii Tratt. has been placed in the monotypic subgenus Platyrhodon (Hurst) Rehd. on the basis of its exfoliating bark and prickly hips (fruits). Several lines of evidence indicate a much closer relationship to species within the subgenus Rosa L., particularly to the species in the sections Bracteatae Thory., Cinnamoneae DC. and Carolinae Crep. Unlike R. persica Michx. (subgenus Hulthemia (Dumort.) Focke.) and R. minutifolia Engelmann (Subgenus Hesperhodos Cockerell), which inhabit deserts, R. roxburghii inhabits more mesic habitats alongside numerous species of subgenus Rosa. Chromosome morphology and size in R. roxburghii resemble those of subgenus Rosa, and both have a single nucleolar organizer locus on the short arm of a relatively short submetacentric chromosome, as revealed by florescent in situ DNA hybridization. Rosa roxburghii clustered well within subgenus Rosa on the basis of alleles at putative isozyme loci and RAPD markers. Thus R. roxburghii probably should be classified as a morphologically distinct section of the subgenus Rosa rather than as a separate subgenus.
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