Have you noticed the many bushes, with white blossoms, that are growing along our roadways and reverting fields? This bush that is known as multiflora rose has a very interesting history.

I am sure that you have all heard the expression “good fences make good neighbors.” In the spring, one back-breaking chore that a farmer always has is that of repairing fences. These fences are expensive in maintaining; however, they are important in keeping cattle from straying onto neighboring properties.

At first, fencing materials were abundant. The farmers made fences from stumps that had been pulled out to clear fields. Since wood was plentiful, a variety of fences were made with posts and split rails, however wooden fences had a limited life and needed to be constantly replaced.

Farmers soon learned which trees were best for the making of fences and posts. Although these fences lasted over a longer period, they still had to be replaced.

The rocky soil of the Northeast and Middle Atlantic States provided material for a lasting fence, one that endures today. Stones quickly became the standard fencing material. Every time a field was plowed, more stones were unearthed for the farmers’ walls.

These wonderful old stone walls are found all over Pennsylvania.

Although these stone walls have stood for years, many walls are still in good shape. A lot of hard work went into picking the stones, placing the stones on a stone boat, hauling them to the end of the field, unloading the stones and then the back-breaking job of erecting the stone wall. It seems to me that a person could have spent their entire life just building stone fences.

Many years ago, I built a stone wall along our driveway, and each spring I have spent time rebuilding the wall due to snow toppling it over and cars backing into the wall. I finally improved at building a stone wall, and it has remained stacked for the last 20-plus years.

Farmers have long been interested in the idea of having living fences. No longer did they want the posts or rails that rotted or barbed wire that rusted and sagged each year, or the back breaking work of building a stone wall.

The English used hawthorn bushes for their living fences, however the hedges needed to be trimmed. In Missouri, the Osage orange had become the farmers’ answer to the living fences, but this soon became a problem due to the plant’s root system that sent out robber roots into the fields and stole the fertilizer out of the soil. Osage orange also needed to be trimmed to be an effective fence.

In 1940, tests were done to find a replacement for Osage orange, and out of 200 shrubs, the multiflora rose won. This plant occupied less ground, required no trimming and grew in poorer soil than the Osage orange. The plant, which had white flowers, bore an abundance of berries that turned a dark red and persisted throughout the winter months, producing food for wildlife.

The multiflora rose was said to offer little competition to adjacent crops. Soon the multiflora rose was being furnished to farmers up and down the east coast and by 1948, the multiflora rose was becoming America’s living fence. During that year one thousand miles of multiflora plants were set out.

Then testing of multiflora rose found that the plant did not grow well from seed and spread only to a certain extent by layering. The tests results showed that the seed germinates only under ideal nursery conditions, therefore the plant will not spread

However, it was overlooked that after the birds feed on the berries, the hard seed passes through the bird’s digestive system and is softened enough to permit germination.

As a result of all the planting of multiflora rose in the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and even into the ’70s, along with the birds’ spreading, this plant has become an invasive species.

Multiflora rose became popular and was purposely planted along our highways for soil erosion and as a living fence. I remember taking multiflora rose seedling orders from farmers, who were enrolled in either the PA Game Commission’s Safety Zone or Farm Game Projects. Later when delivering the seedlings to these farmers, I always mentioned that the plant was good for wildlife.

Before long we realized that the multiflora rose was extremely prolific, producing over a million seeds each year and spreading through both the stems and root system. Today, farmers and landowners are trying to rid their land of this noxious plant, however it is an expensive and tedious job.

Mother Nature has now stepped in with a disease known as RRD (rose rosette disease), more commonly known as witches broom. The disease Phyllcrocoptes fructiphil-K is caused by an extremely small eriophyid mite, a mite so small that 20 could stand side by side on the head of a pin.

Multiflora rose is extremely susceptible to this mite disease.

Witches broom is easily identified by the new growth of leaves and stems of infected plants appearing as a deep red and possibly with crinkling leaves. Later the plant produces numerous small succulent shoots growing in all directions, giving the stem a witch’s broom appearance.

The plant usually dies within two years after being infected.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the mites could spread to cultivated roses. Some ornamental varieties of roses can become affected with RRD, but the symptoms are less severe. Several species of ornamental roses have been inoculated under greenhouse studies, and after two and a half years, they show no symptoms of RRD.

The multiflora rose is another example of man’s attempt to improve on nature that ends in disaster.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.