Rosa × odorata | |
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'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
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Binomial name | |
Rosa × odorata (Andrews) Sweet
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Synonyms[1] | |
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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]