From Wikipedia - Reading time: 5 min
| Rosa × odorata | |
|---|---|
| 'Hume's Blush Tea-scented China' | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Rosales |
| Family: | Rosaceae |
| Genus: | Rosa |
| Species: | R. × odorata
|
| Binomial name | |
| Rosa × odorata (Andrews) Sweet
| |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |

Rosa × odorata or Rosa odorata is a hybrid flowering plant of the genus Rosa native to Yunnan in southwest China, whose taxonomy has been confused. It has been considered a hybrid of Rosa gigantea and Rosa chinensis, or as a quite rare wild species that includes R. gigantea. The wild forms are cultivated to some extent.[2] Cultivars were developed in China in ancient times from R. chinensis crosses, and these have been important in the ancestry of the tea-scented China roses, also called tea roses, and their descendants the hybrid tea roses.
Four varieties of the species are recognized in the Flora of China:[2]
The cultivar R. odorata 'Mutabilis' is widely cultivated, and is notable for the fact that the blooms change colour from yellow to pink. Growing to 1.5 m (4.9 ft) tall and broad, it is a lax, thornless shrub. It prefers an open position in full sun. This cultivar has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.[3]
Other cultivar names include 'Bengal Crimson'[4][5] and Bengal Beauty.[6][7]