Book  (2016)  Page(s) 244.  
 
Rosa longicuspis has long been confused in commerce and in the literature with Rosa mulliganii, which it resembles very closely. In fact, it has been thought by some authorities to be synonymous, but some distinguishing features for Rosa mulliganii have been reported such as greater maximum height and greater hardiness. My plant grows at least 45 feet (13.7 meters) into a native maple tree. The greatest height record I can find for Rosa longicuspis is 30 feet (9 meters), and the most commonly reported height is 20 feet (6 meters9. It would probably be best to view Rosa mulliganii as a variety or form of Rosa longicuspis.

Booklet  (2009)  Page(s) 28.  
 
Diploid....R. longicuspis var. longicuspis Bertol., heterozygous loci 59% [Provenance: Quarry Hill Botanical garden, Glen Ellen, CA, 1990.206B Yunnan province]
R. longicuspis var. longicuspis , heterozygous loci 57% [Provenance: Quarry Hill Botanical garden, Glen Ellen, CA, 1992.244 Sichuan province]
R. longicuspis, heterozygous loci 59% [Provenance: China]

Magazine  (2009)  Page(s) 64-73.  Includes photo(s).
 
By Martyn Rix:
Rosa longicuspis Bertoloni, illustrated here, is a typical member of the section Synstylae. Antonio Bertoloni described the species in 1861, citing J.D. Hooker & T. Thomson’s collections in the Khasia hills, identified in Flora of British India (Hooker, 1878) as R. sempervirens....The flowers of Rosa longicuspis are pale yellow in bud, opening white, with silky hairs on the outer surface of the petals; they often become pinkish and blotchy as they fade....The fruits are almost spherical and ripen dark red and shining; they have a mixture of silky hairs and stalked glands on the pedicels, but the plant is otherwise more or less glabrous. The leaves have mostly seven leaflets, and are glabrous except for the fine glandular teeth along the margin of the stipule. In most specimens the young shoots are crimson or bright reddish-brown, and well-endowed with recurved thorns....The character of silky hairs on the back of the petals seems to be confined to Rosa longicuspis, R. sinowilsonii, R. lasiosepala and R. filipes Rehd. & Wils.
Rosa longicuspis Bertol. in Mem. Accad. Sci. Bologna 11:201 (1861). Type: habui ex India orientali in Khusia ad altitudinem 25000 pedum ab Hookero fil. et a Thomsonio (iso. K!).
R. moschata Herrmann var. yunnanensis Crpin in Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg. 25, part 2:
8(1886). Type: Les haies pre`s de Gnou-Kay (Ho-Kin). Fleurs, 7 aou ̈t 1884.
Delavay 1141.
R. charbonneaui H. Léveille ́ in Rep. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 8: 338 (1914). Type:
Long-tan, 2500 m. marie s.n.
R. lucens Rolfe in Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1916: 34. Type: China, Wilson 1234.
R. willmottiana H. Léveille ́ in Repert Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 11: 299 (1912).
Type: brousses et haies a` Long-ky, 700 m., Juin 1911 E.E. Maire.
R. yunnanensis (Crépin) Boulenger in Bull. Jard. Bot. E ́ tat Bruxelles 9: 235(1933).
Description. A strong-growing climbing evergreen shrub to 10 m or more. Stems with persistent strong recurved thorns. Shoots sterile in the first year, reaching 2 m long, with red, shining stems and recurved thorns. Leaves with five to seven leaflets, dark green or dark greyish-green above, often reddish and paler beneath, glabrous, the terminal leaflet lanceolate or narrowly ovate, shortly acuminate, 5–7 cm long, with small, equal gland-tipped curved teeth; rhachis usually red, with scattered recurved thorns and stalked glands; stipules united with the rhachis, c. 1 mm wide, with a glandular margin, and a short, narrow free tip around 2–4 mm long. Shoots fertile in the second year, with the inflorescence formed on a short shoot in the leaf axil; leaves on fertile shoots with up to nine leaflets. Flowers 3–5 cm across, opening white from a creamy-yellow bud, usually 5–10 in a simple umbel-like corymb, but sometimes to 16 in a compound corymb; pedicels 2–5 cm, glandular and with scattered silky hairs; ovary glandular and with silky hairs; sepals 15–22 mm long, persisting until the fruit ripens; the outer two simple, the inner three with pinnate leafy lobes and a leafy apex, silky hairy, with stalked glands on the outer surface; petals usually rounded at the apex, silky outside, often becoming blotched with pink as the flower fades. Stamens darkening after dehiscence. Styles densely pubescent, exserted, c. 5 mm in fruit. Hips more or less spherical, c. 1–1.2 cm in diameter, shining, reddish or deep orange, on curved pedicels. Seeds c. 12 per hip, small, angular.
Distribution. Assam, Yunnan, Guizhou, SW Sichuan. Habitat. In hedges, on open hillsides and in scrub, to 3000 m. Flowering time. May–June.

Article (misc)  (Jun 2007)  
 
R. longicuspis ... is the typical musk rose of the Eastern Himalayas. We found it on the sides of a ravine on Shillong Peak in the Khasi hills around 2300 meters altitude. It is an extensive climber reaching well over 10 meters, with clusters of white flowers with a trace of pink and the most beautiful foliage – elongated and a shining dark green.

Book  (May 2003)  
 
Rosa longicuspis Bertoloni, Mém. Reale Accad. Sci. Ist. Bologna. 11: 101. 1861

Shrubs usually evergreen, climbing or scrambling, 1.5–6 m tall. Branchlets purple-brown; prickles sparse or scattered, curved, to 5 mm, stout, flat, gradually tapering to a broad base. Leaves including petiole 7–14 cm; stipules mostly adnate to petiole, free parts lanceolate, often glandular-pubescent; rachis and petiole glabrous, with a few hooked prickles; leaflets 5–9, ovate, elliptic, or ovate-oblong, 3–7(–11) × 1–3.5(–5) cm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, abaxially with prominent midvein, adaxially shiny, rugose or not, base subrounded or broadly cuneate, margin acutely serrate, apex acuminate or long acuminate. Flowers numerous, in corymb, 3–4(–5) cm in diam.; pedicel 1.5–3.5 cm, sparsely pubescent, densely glandular-pubescent; bracts ovate-oblong, margin glandular-pubescent. Hypanthium ovoid or obovoid, sparsely pubescent and glandular-pubescent. Sepals 5, deciduous, lanceolate, 0.8–1.2 cm, both surfaces pubescent, abaxially intermixed with glandular hairs, margin entire or few pinnately lobed, apex long acuminate. Petals 5, fragrant, white or creamy-white, broadly obovate, abaxially sericeous, base broadly cuneate, apex erose. Styles connate into column, exserted, slightly longer than stamens, pubescent. Hip dark red, obovoid, 1–1.2 cm in diam., glabrous; sepals reflexed, deciduous at hip ripening. Fl. May–Jul, fr. Jul–Nov.
Mixed evergreen forests, thickets, scrub, dry open areas; 400--2700 m. Guizhou Sichuan, Yunnan [N India].

Book  (Oct 1996)  Page(s) 39.  
 
R. longicuspis (1915) Description... The species R. mulligani is so similar that it is often sold as R. longicuspis. A rampant climber, it will cover sheds and trees with its glossy foliage, which is almost evergreen... single white flowers... Hardier than 'Kiftsgate', this is the rose that makes you catch your breath in the famous White Garden at Sissinghurst.

Book  (Feb 1993)  Page(s) 34.  Includes photo(s).

Book  (1988)  Page(s) 157.  
 
located at the swamp, R. longicuspis Bertol. (semi-evergreen), SYNSTYLAE, western China, Himalayas, 1915, cream-white, single, strong fragrance, medium size, cluster-flowered, floriferous, climbing or prostate, to 6 m, many prickles, medium green large glossy foliage, 7 leaflets, scarlet-orange ovoid fruit

Book  (1988)  Page(s) 39.  Includes photo(s).
 
Rosa longicuspis A. Bertoloni (R. lucens Rolfe, R. yunnanensis (Crép.) Boul.) A robust climber up to 6 m or more, with stiff shining almost evergreen leaves and red-purple young shoots. Leaflets 3-7, narrowly ovate to lanceolate or elliptic more or less reticulate, leathery, green beneath, glabrous, 5-10 cm long. Flowers about 5 cm across, sweetly scented, from narrowly ovoid buds, in a panicle of up to 15; petals silky on the back. Pedicels and hips often glandular and hairy; hips ovoid, 1.5-2 cm long. Native of the easzern Himalayas from Assam to Yunnan and Sichuan where it is found on Mt Emei, growing in hedges, thickets and among rocks, from 1000 to 2000 m, flowering from May to July. Photographed here in May on dry slopes in western Yunnan above the city of Dali. R. longicuspis var. sinowilsonii (Hemsl.) Yu & Ku, differs in its larger leaves, no - or only slightly - hairy pedicels, and broader buds. Described from Mt Emei.

Website/Catalog  (1986)  Page(s) 55.  
 
R. mulliganii (Previously R. longicuspis). For a number of years this rose has been distributed erroneously as R. longicuspis.