How do you tell the difference between Chinese rose, climbing rose and rugosa rose? This question is the hottest topic lately
"I want to give you ninety-nine roses" - lately I've been brainwashed by this catchy song on Douyin. The moment anyone mentions roses, this song starts echoing in my head.
The songwriter probably didn't know that if you really gave a girl ninety-nine roses, she might just slap you across the face. Because what's sold in flower shops isn't true roses at all, but Chinese roses (Rosa chinensis) posing under a false name.
When it comes to the difference between Chinese roses and rugosa roses, most people only half understand. What does a rugosa rose actually look like? How closely is it related to the Chinese rose? And how do you tell apart the Chinese rose, rugosa rose and climbing rose, all belonging to the Rosaceae family?
After reading this, you'll surely be able to recognize them in no time and speak about them like an expert.
{Peony Girl Vol.730 }
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The Three Rose Sisters
In the plant world, members of the Rosaceae family are the most captivating. Among fruits there are pears, apples and strawberries; among flowers there are roses, Chinese roses, climbing roses, cherry blossoms and crabapples - every one is sweet, every one is beautiful.
These rose relatives, all belonging to the same family, have very strong genes, and their beauty always dazzles the eye. Peony previously taught everyone how to tell some of them apart (Review | Here comes the handbook for distinguishing pears, plums, peaches, cherries, plums, apricots and crabapples). The second installment covers the Chinese rose, rugosa rose and climbing rose that everyone has been so concerned about lately.
Chinese rose Rugosa rose Climbing rose
It's not just their appearance - untangling the intricate relationships among them is like a super-long family drama.
Chinese rose
Let's start with the Chinese rose. This flower with such a rustic name has conquered the hearts of women all over the world.The "roses" boyfriends love to give are actually all Chinese roses!Having received so many Chinese roses, have you ever really looked at one closely?
Chinese roses come in diverse flower shapes and colors,
ranging from single-petaled to fully double-petaled,
and the ones we receive are all double-petaled.
They cluster together before opening, and after blooming they layer upon layer,
with petal edges curling outward and tipping upward.
The leaf edges have sharp little serrations, but they're not obvious,
and the leaves are dark green, smooth and glossy.
The stems have thorns, but they're not very dense.
The Chinese rose is also called "monthly red" because its blooming period is very long,
with a natural flowering season from August to April of the following year.
The Chinese rose is everyone's sweetheart,5 countries around the world have the Chinese rose as their national flower, and 52 cities in China have it as their city flower.
The Chinese rose has been loved for a long history. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, it has been widely cultivated in palace gardens. Li Bai wrote in a poem, "The peony is noble and heralds spring's dawn, the peony though splendid blooms only in early summer. Only this flower blooms without complaint, claiming all four seasons of spring in a single year."
However, the Chinese roses sold in flower shops today are not direct descendants of ancient Chinese roses, but have foreign blood.
In 1789, Chinese roses were introduced to Europe via India.It's said that in order to get the roses delivered into the hands of Napoleon's wife Josephine, the warring England and France actually reached a truce agreement.
Europeans are romantic to the bone, which gave the Chinese rose the chance to cross the ocean, and led to the more than ten thousand varieties that were later born.
After Chinese roses landed in Europe, they began a shameless "hybridization life" with European climbing roses.
It wasn't until 1973 that Mrs. Hinsdale, an American friend, presented Chinese roses to Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou. Only then did the Chinese rose, which had drifted abroad for two hundred years, return to its homeland - but "the accent unchanged, the appearance transformed."
Rugosa rose
Even if you've received roses until your hands are soft, perhaps you've never seen a true "rugosa rose."
A netizen on Zhihu shared a simple way to distinguish rugosa roses from Chinese roses:
Take the flower and give it to your girlfriend.
She says: Ah, how beautiful, thank you! This is a Chinese rose.
She slaps you directly - this is a rugosa rose.
A true rugosa rose, with single-petaled flowers,
is a tiny little thing with pitifully few petals.
Even the double-petaled ones don't have the lovely layering of Chinese roses,
and when fully open they look like a flattened pancake.
The leaf veins are sunken, making the leaves look somewhat wrinkled.
The flower stalks are relatively short, and the thorns are even denser.
Unlike the prickles of Chinese roses, the thorns of rugosa roses are stem thorns,
that is to say, Chinese rose thorns grow on the skin and are easy to snap off,
but the thorns of rugosa roses - if you dare to snap them,
just try it, I guarantee they'll pierce you good
Rugosa roses bloom only in one season, April to May, and cannot bloom in multiple seasons.
The flower colors are also relatively plain, only purplish red, pink and white,
not as varied as the hybrid Chinese roses.
There are no cut flowers of this type of rugosa rose on the market - not because of appearance, but because rugosa roses are so delicate that they wilt within half an hour of being cut. If you want to meet one by chance at the flower market, you can only blame deep affection and shallow fate.
Although they can't be used in flower arrangements, every flower has its own mission when it falls into this world.
Rugosa roses are less beautiful than Chinese roses, but they possess a rich rose fragrance. What we usually come into contact with -rose essential oil, rose tea, rose wine and rose jam - are all made from true rugosa roses.
China is one of the places of origin for rugosa roses, so the various products made from them are not exclusive to the West.
During the Song dynasty, people already pounded rugosa roses to make rose jam.In "Dream of the Red Chamber," after Jia Baoyu was beaten, he was tired of eating "rose paste," and this rose paste was most likely made from candied rugosa roses.
There are only about a dozen varieties of rugosa roses in total. Compared to the Chinese rose family, the rugosa rose family is a modest little household.
The traditional rugosa rose varieties commonly cultivated in China now include Kushui rose, Pingyin rose, Qianye rose (a French variety), and Dianhong rose. The European traditional Damascus series roses are also cultivated - those are the top choice for making rose fragrance and essential oil.
Damascus rose Pingyin rose
Climbing rose
The last one to mention is the head of the Rosaceae family. The climbing rose became an internet celebrity thanks to one line - I don't need to say it, everyone knows it: "In the heart a fierce tiger, yet sniffing the rose gently."
Just hearing the name, the climbing rose gives people a gentle feeling.The climbing rose has another name, called the "buy-a-smile flower."It sounds a bit frivolous, but actually it means that the blooming climbing rose surpasses even a beauty's smile.
Legend has it that Emperor Wu of Han was admiring flowers in the garden with Lijuan when the climbing roses first bloomed, looking as if they were smiling. The emperor sighed: This flower surpasses even a beauty's smile. Lijuan jokingly asked: Can smiles be bought? The emperor said: Yes. So Lijuan took out a hundred jin of gold as "smile-buying money," to give the emperor a day's joy.
The climbing rose is a vine plant that grows along walls,
blooming only in one season, April to May, and cannot bloom in multiple seasons,
with slender, soft branches that droop downward.
The leaf edges have small serrations,
and the leaves are flat with fine hairs.
The flower shapes are mostly single-petaled or semi-double-petaled,
unwilling to be lonely, they often cluster in groups on the branches.
The center of the climbing rose has a bright spot of yellow,
and from a distance you can tell the difference between it and the climbing Chinese rose.
Climbing rose Climbing Chinese rose
The Chinese rose, rugosa rose and climbing rose are called the Three Rose Sisters of China, but the one most favored by ancient literati was the climbing rose. Famous poets like Li Bai, Bai Juyi, Du Mu and Li Shangyin all wrote poems praising climbing roses.
"The crystal curtain stirs as a gentle breeze rises, a full trellis of climbing roses fills the courtyard with fragrance."The ancients loved climbing roses, perhaps partly because they are trailing plants that complement ancient gardens so well.
To sum up, identifying these three flowers is actually not hard at all:
Chinese rose: blooms year-round, leaves are smooth and glossy, double-petaled flower shapes are more common, petal edges curl outward
Rugosa rose: blooms April to May, leaves are wrinkled, thorns are many and dense, has a rich floral fragrance, flower shape spreads open
Climbing rose: grows climbing up walls, leaves have small serrations and fine hairs, multiple flowers cluster on the branches
Confirmed with a glance~ let's review once more.
Don't give back to Peony what was just taught, okay,
If you want to win Peony's praise, write your answers in the comments
Reading this far, don't you think the Three Rose Sisters are actually pretty easy to recognize? ￣へ￣ Why still confused? Blame it on translation.
In the West, Chinese roses, climbing roses and rugosa roses are all called "rose."。When the modern Chinese rose - this "mixed-blood" representing romance and love - was introduced to China, continuing to use the name "Chinese rose" was too local, so early translators used a native Chinese plant - the rugosa rose - to refer to it.
Thus, through repeated misinformation, everyone came to think that the modern Chinese roses sold in flower shops are all rugosa roses.
A courtyard of Chinese roses, a full trellis of climbing roses,
the skylark sang all day long, the roses steeped the ground in fragrance.
Every flower is an angel fallen to earth.
If you want to know and understand them,
the best way is still to go see them for yourself,
and you'll discover that every flower, like a person,
has its own lovable qualities.
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