Rosa rubiginosa, commonly known as the sweet briar or eglantine rose, grows wild in Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, with sweetly perfumed single white or pink flowers followed by orange fruit. The specimen near the All-America Rose Selection winners' bed just east of the Regenstein Center has a very showy crop of hips that catch the eye from a distance in the dead of winter.

No one knows for sure which species of rose that Sargon, King of Sumer, brought to his capital of Ur in Chaldea in 2350 B.C., but roses are among the oldest plants grown in gardens.