Newsletter  (Nov 2017)  Page(s) 22-23.  Includes photo(s).
 
[From "A Rosa by any other name", by Don Gers, pp. 21-23]
Years ago Virginia Hopper shared with me a curious little rose she was given from Missouri. She called it "Pearl's Little Missouri Rose.” I eventually identified it as Rosa rudiuscula Greene. I've also determined the Latin epithet Rosa rudiuscula means "Ruddy Little Rose" for its short height and green leaves extensively splotched with red. The name was possibly proposed by amateur botanist Benjamin Franklin Bush who found the rose in 1896 on the Little Blue River in Jackson County, Missouri. But it was described and published by Edward L. Greene in 1911, hence the botanical name Rosa rudiuscula Greene.

Book  (1966)  Page(s) 158.  
 
Dr. Eileen W. Erlanson Macfarlane, "The Old Problem of Species In Rosa With Special Reference To North America"
Footnote 3
In my opinion R. rudiuscula is a natural hybrid between R. arkansana and R. carolina. It is a definite taxon (entity) and can be designated R. x rudiuscula. It was re-created by me an Ann Arbor from the parent species.

Book  (1940)  Page(s) 438.  
 
Related species [to R. nitida]: R. rudiuscula Greene. Stems to 1 m., densely bristly: lfts. 5-9, subcoriaceous, elliptic, acute at ends, densely pubescent and pale beneath; fls. few; pedicels usually glandular-hispid. Iowa and Mo. to Okla. Intr. 1917. Zone V.

Book  (1937)  Page(s) 77.  
 
rudiuscula Greene (close to arkansana Port.) [pollen quality] 74% [ploidy] 28

(1911)  Page(s) vol. 2, p. 134.  
 
Rosa rudiuscula. Stems 2 feet high, woody to the summit, but simple except as to flowering twigs, densely prickly, the prickles unequal, none very long.