Look at the roses blooming on the roadsides in Beijing. Do they look like the roses you received?

As a synonym for love, roses have witnessed many happy and touching stories. However, the roses sold on the market are not necessarily real roses, but may be Chinese roses pretending to be roses! Roses, Chinese roses and wild roses are called "three sisters", and people always can't tell them apart. So, what are the differences between them?

Roses were popular throughout the country during the Tang and Song dynasties, and entered Europe as image ambassadors, promoting friendly exchanges between China and foreign countries. Later, they gradually became one of the top ten famous flowers in China and were called "Chinese roses" by Europeans. Su Dongpo once praised them as "only this flower blooms endlessly, and it occupies the spring season all year round." Now it is also one of the most popular garden flowers in people's gardens.

The rose is popular in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions and even the world for its fragrance. In Yang Wanli's writing, it "has no similar name to the rose, and is not in the same genealogy as the rose." In ancient Greek mythology, it is the symbol of the goddess of beauty Aphrodite.

Roses are small in size and have been loved by people since ancient times. Why are these three often confused, and how can they be distinguished? Let me explain slowly.

Cut flowers of roses

Source: palosverdesflorist.com

These three plants belong to the genus Rosa, and their official names are Chinese rose (R. chinensis), rugosa (R. rugosa) and multiflora (R. multiflora). So, from a botanical point of view, the relationship between these three is quite close.

1. Reasons for the confusion in names

In fact, the confusion of these three names is mainly due to the differences between Eastern and Western cultures. In China, roses are not outstanding ornamental flowers. In ancient times, they were more used to make sachets or foods such as rose jam.

As for the beautiful legend of roses and the flower language that symbolizes romantic love, they come from the West. In many European languages, all rose plants are referred to by the word Rose (or its variants), such as die Rose in German, and Rose in English and French.

Bouquet of roses (actually Chinese roses)

Source: Wikipedia

The three main species of Rosaceae in my country are Chinese rose, Chinese rose and Chinese rose. After a long period of cultural exchange, the Western name of rose has been adopted. This has affected people's understanding of similar plants and further caused confusion among the three names. The most obvious example is that the so-called "roses" we see in flower shops are basically horticultural varieties formed through long-term artificial cultivation - hybrid scented roses. Real roses are almost never seen in flower shops.

In addition, there are some subtle influences. For example, the beautiful meaning of the word "rose" in the cultural context makes merchants more inclined to sell the same kind of flowers under the name of "rose" rather than using the original name.

2. Uses of roses, Chinese roses and wild roses

There are many varieties of roses, and they are artificially bred to produce a variety of colors and flower shapes. Among the cut flowers sold in flower shops, most of those sold under the name of "rose" are roses. It is one of the four major cut flowers in the world (roses, chrysanthemums, carnations and gladiolus). Whenever lovers give each other bouquets or express their love, the "roses" used in the bouquets are basically roses (hybrid scented roses).

Rose bouquet (actually the "roses" are Chinese roses)

Source: laneflorist.com

Rather than being used for viewing, roses are used more as raw materials for perfumes, flavors and other products, and as fillings in foods such as flower cakes. They are mainly used as food and industrial raw materials. The popular "flower cakes", "rose cakes", "rose dew" and "rose jam" are mostly made from rose petals. In addition, rose fruits can also be eaten and have a high vitamin C content.

Rose fruit

Source: Wikipedia

As for roses, the wild roses and their horticultural species mentioned above are currently mainly used as landscaping, landscape plants and ornamental plants in gardens. Other species in the genus Rosa are also used in agricultural research, mostly as parental materials for breeding hybrid varieties, and some artificial varieties are also used to make essential oils. For example, the mainstay of essential oil production, R. × damascena, is a hybrid of R. gallica and R. moschata.

Essential oil made from Rosa rugosa

Source: Wikipedia

3. Rose, Chinese rose or wild rose?

So, for us, how do we tell whether the flowers in flower shops and flower markets, roadside landscape flowers, and flowers in the wild are roses, hybrid roses, or wild roses?

Rose flowers and leaves

Source: Wikipedia

Let's first look at roses and Chinese roses. The most obvious feature is that roses have wrinkled leaves, while Chinese roses are relatively smooth. In addition, roses have densely packed thorns (developed from the stems), which are thin and pointed. Chinese roses have thorns (formed by the epidermis), which are relatively wide and flat, and the number is obviously not as many as roses.

Rose's thorns

Source: See watermark

Rose thorns

Source: See watermark

In terms of flowering period, roses only bloom once a year, and the flowering period is relatively short. Most of the time, only the leaves can be seen. However, roses can bloom several times a year, and the flowering period is longer.

Rose flowers and leaves

Source: Wikipedia

As mentioned before, roses, wild roses, and Chinese roses all belong to the genus Rosa. Plants of the genus Rosa are widely distributed in the northern hemisphere and are quite common horticultural and wild plants. In fact, among the more than 200 species of the genus Rosa, except for roses (Rosa rugosa) and their horticultural species, Chinese roses (Rosa chinenses), bright-leaved roses (Rosa lucidissima), perfume roses (Rosa odorata) and their horticultural species, most of the others are named after roses. Regarding roses, here we mainly talk about wild roses (Rosa multiflora, also called multi-flowered roses) which are more common in northern China.

Wild rose flowers and leaves

Source: Wikipedia

Like roses, roses only bloom once a year. There are also a considerable number of horticultural varieties of roses, most of which are climbing shrubs (some roses are also climbing), with thorns on the stems. The flowers are relatively small, but the number of flowers is more than that of roses.

Based on these characteristics, we can roughly distinguish these three flowers. I believe that now you will no longer be confused about the difference between roses, roses and roses, right?