There are 15 species of Rosa known to occur in Wisconsin out of cultivation, some native and others cultivated and sometimes escaping as is the case for Rosa rugosa. As in all our roses, the leaves are pinnately compound, and alternate with stipules at the base. The sepals are not lobed (compare to Rosa multiflora or Rosa canina, species that bear lobed sepals) and the styles are not united into a column rising clearly above the hypanthium (compare to Rosa multiflora and Rosa setigera which have a raised column of styles). On the upper surface of the leaflets the veins are impressed creating a "rugose" surface of higher surfaces surrounded by the lower veins, and supplying the basis for one of the common names.

The occurrence of Rosa rugosa in the landscape is undoubtedly more frequent than is indicated by the vouchered locations shown in the map. It might be expected in mostly sunny, disturbed urban areas, rural residential sites near locations where the species is grown as an ornamental and along roads and other rights-of-way, abandoned fields, shorelines, etc.