JXB Advance Access originally published online on July 2, 2009
Journal of Experimental Botany 2009 60(13):3611-3613; doi:10.1093/jxb/erp215
© The Author [2009]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Symbolism of plants: examples from European-Mediterranean culture presented with biology and history of art
OCTOBER: Roses
Riklef Kandeler1 and
Wolfram R. Ullrich2,*
1Institute of Botany, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Gregor Mendelstr. 33, 1180 Wien, Austria
2Institute of Botany, Darmstadt University of Technology, Kirchbergweg 6, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany
* To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: ullrichcw{at}online.de
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OCTOBER: Roses
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The rose is amongst the most highly esteemed of all garden flowers in many cultures with breeding and selection known in the Middle East from quite early in history. Modern roses have been selected variously for beauty, size, form, fragrance, repeated flowering, cold tolerance, and resistance to pests and diseases. This hedgerow rogue can now be enjoyed in flower at any time of year and the impact and beauty of their blooms has, over millennia, been reflected in their value to symbolism.
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Biology
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The genus
Rosa within the Rosaceae comprises a large group of
wild species and a vast array of garden hybrids. Usually rose
flowers have five sepals and petals and the leaves are pinnate.
Their stems are prickly, a feature of contrast to the serenity
of the flowers and of value in the symbolism of the rose. The
prickles aid its climbing and rambling and deter foragers. Persia
(Iran) and China are generally regarded as the original homes
of today's classic garden roses (
Kordes, 1960;
Jacob et al., 1990).
Krüssmann (1974) mapped the likely routes of the spread
of garden roses from antiquity into the Middle Ages. Theophrastes
(
c. 370–287 BC) was already distinguishing single rose
flowers from those with 12–20 and up to 100 petals (i.e.
double flowers) (Sprengel, 1822).
Rosa gallica, the Gallic rose
or vinegar rose (
Fig. 1), is a parent of many antique garden
roses and its wild form is distributed across southern and central
Europe. This species is characterized by a tendency to convert
stamens to petals (double flowers), by the whitish inner parts
of the petals and by reflexed pinnatifid sepals.
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Symbolism
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The rose is often called the ‘Queen of the Flowers’.
The idea of the rose as an expression of the highest form of
flower originated in Persia and from there spread to India and
across the Middle East to Europe. Rose flowers are widely used
even today as symbols of love and beauty, valued for their shape
and their fragrance. They have also frequently been associated
with nobility and are used as emblems of leadership and distinction,
as in the British House of Tudor and as the state flower of
Texas and of Alberta amongst others. The rose is also important
in fragrances and in cooking, but the rose flower remains a
symbol recognized worldwide.
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Roses in antiquity and the Middle Ages
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The oldest written testimony of the use of roses by humans originates
from Mesopotamia. In the royal graves of Uruk, the cultural
centre of the Sumerians (now ruins called Warka, in southern
Iraq), Sir Leonard Wolley found cuneiform-script texts reporting
on warfare by Sargon of Akkad (24th century BC) whose empire
reached from western Persia to Asia Minor. Akkad crossed the
Taurus mountains and brought back grapevines, figs, and roses
(Heinz-Mohr and Sommer, 1988; Beuchert, 2004).
By the time of the ancient Greeks, floor mosaics show elaborate rose garlands with double blooms [Fig. 2; Acropolis of Pergamum, now Turkey] and, at this time, the rose became the plant of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. For the Romans, roses were the flowers of Venus (corresponding to Aphrodite) symbolizing spring, love, beauty, and charm, but also a transitory state. There is evidence that they were farmed in large plantations as well as widely in private gardens. A wall fresco from a Pompeian house shows a double form of R. gallica in a garden, reproduced in a very naturalistic manner (1st century BC).
In Christianity, roses became symbolic plants of the Virgin
Mary and, in Islam, white roses became sacred symbols with direct
contact to the prophet (
Beuchert, 2004). In the Christian Middle
Ages, roses were often depicted in altar paintings, two of the
most famous being Stephan Lochner's and Martin Schongauer's
‘Mary in the rose-grove’ (both 15th century). But
one finds them also as ornaments carved in stone on capitals
and other structures of church architecture. There are many
connections in art history between roses or rosettes and the
cross in early Christian art. A Byzantine relief table is exhibited
in the Museum of Ancient Corinth (
Fig. 3). Here, eight rosettes,
each of them twisted with the neighbouring one, and on the frame,
all with each other, surround the cross, thus making it a cross
of life.
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Roses in the Modern Age
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In Flanders and Holland, a school of flower painting became
active between the end of the 16th century and the middle of
the 18th century (
Hairs, 1985). Its founder was Jan Brueghel
the Elder (1568–1625), the son of Pieter Brueghel the
Elder, who framed his pictures with flowers related to the subject
of the pictures. In a painting of Mary with the Child and Elizabeth,
John the Baptist, and angels, the landscape is surrounded by
flower garlands rich in roses (
Fig. 4). The Dutch schools emphasized
the pleasures of life with rich, abundant plantlife. This was
the transition towards the more decorative use of flowers in
the following centuries. Exquisite paintings of rose varieties
were produced for the French crown by Redouté (1759–1840).
The current cut flower market is worth billions of dollars a
year and the rose remains a perennial favourite, especially
as a token of love. Thus the symbolic meaning of the rose has
not been totally forgotten.
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References
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Beuchert M. Symbolik der Pflanzen (2004) Frankfurt, Leipzig: Insel-Taschenbuch.
Bingöl O. Malerei und Mosaik der Antike in der Türkei (1997) Mainz: Ph von Zabern.
Hairs M-L. Les paintres flamands de fleurs au XVIIe siècle (1985) Bruxelles: Editions d'Art, Lefèbvre et Gillet.
Heinz-Mohr G, Sommer V. Die Rose. Entfaltung eines Symbols (1988) München: E Diederichs.
Jacob A, Grimm H, Grimm W, Müller B. Alte Rosen und Wildrosen (1990) Stuttgart: Ulmer.
Kordes W. Das Rosenbuch. Anzucht–Pflege–Verwendung der Rose (1960) 8th edn. Hannover: Schaper.
Krüssmann G. Rosen, Rosen, Rosen (1974) Hamburg-Berlin. P Parey, cited in: Der Palmengarten (Frankfurt), Special edition 1/85.
Sprengel K. Theophrasts Naturgeschichte der Gewächse (1822) 1st Part: translation. 2nd Part: explanations. Altona: JF Hammerich.
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