Distribution

Prickly rose is circumpolar in the boreal forest region. It grows from
Alaska to Quebec and New England [72]. On the West Coast, its range
extends as far south as British Columbia. It is found in Montana,
Wyoming, Colorado, and northern New Mexico in the Rocky Mountains, and
in North and South Dakota in the northern Great Plains [28,32,37,72].
It grows in the Lake States of Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin, with
outlying populations as far south as Iowa and northwestern Illinois
[68].

Subspecies acicularis is primarily Eurasian but extends into Alaska;
subspecies sayi is American [28,69,72,87].