Here, in yesterday’s extreme cold, are a few of our remaining beach rose “hips.” Through the ages, this plant (Rosa rugosa) and its hips have been known by amusingly crude names that reflect one of its potential problems for humans. But, we’ll get to that in a moment.
For many other mammals and birds, these seed-holding hips are one of Nature’s winter survival foods. The hips are rich in vitamins C and B, carotene (provitamin A), and minerals. But they’re very acidic. Humans usually cook them with sugar to make them into jellies, syrups, soups, and other foods. That’s where the problem arises.
Care must be taken to remove and throw away all the tiny hairs on the seeds and elsewhere inside the hips. Those hairs can irritate our skin, mucous membranes, and our entire digestive tract, especially the end thereof.
That’s why many Native Americans reportedly called the plant the “itchy-anus berry bush” (“kikcokalokiqeminsimus” to Maine’s Passamaquoddy tribe members). Even today, the French call these rose hips “grate-culs,” which translates to “ass-scratchers.” (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on January 15, 2022.)