Newsletter  (Aug 2014)  Page(s) 17.  Includes photo(s).
 
Although its provenance is uncertain, in 1870 Sir Thomas Hanbury (who established his well-known garden La Mortola on the Italian Riviera) introduced R. banksiae lutescens, a pale yellow, single rose, by far the most fragrant of all banksiae. Indeed, driving along California Highway 99 some miles south of Turlock, CA, in 2012, my window open, I was suddenly swooped down upon by a glorious scent of roses. Feeling like Ganymede, carried away, I quickly turned my head to notice a long stretch of the highway lined with a soft yellow swath of R. banksiae lutescens. The single flowers decorate the slender outreaching arms of the plants from shoulders to wrist with an extravagance of bloom. Since even Hanbury was uncertain about this rose growing in his own garden, it is quite possible, as Emmanuel O. Fenzi of Florence (later of Santa Barbara, CA and then Libya) suggested in 1878, that it might be a seedling of a double banksiae, yellow or white. Later the rose was much used in the hybridization of Quinto Mansuino’s work beginning in the 1930s.

Book  (2003)  Page(s) 30.  
 
Rosa banksiae f. lutescens.

Article (magazine)  (2001)  Page(s) 393.  
 
R. banksiae f. lutescens Voss Ploidy 2x
Pollen fertility 99.4%
Selfed Fruit set 0%

Book  (2000)  Page(s) 48.  
 
Rosa banksiae lutescens, introduit en 1870, prend légèrement moins d’ampleur, mais ses petites fleurs simples, jaune soufre, sont les plus parfumées de toutes.

Book  (Apr 1999)  Page(s) 252.  
 
Lutescens simplex syns. 'À Fleurs Jaunes', 'Jaune', 'Lutea Simplex'; trans. 'Single Straw-Yellowish' Introducer unknown, pre-1829.

Book  (Nov 1998)  Page(s) 13.  
 
R. banksiae lutescens A natural mutation of R. banksiae. Flowers: single, yellow.

Book  (Nov 1994)  Page(s) 258.  
 
In 1870, plants of the single yellow form were introduced to England by Sir Thomas Hanbury from his famous garden at La Mortola, Menton, though I cannot find out whence he obtained it. It is called Rosa banksiae 'Lutescens' and is as sweetly-scented as the single and double white forms. This rose and its varities had presumably been favourites in Chinese gardens for a long while; most of the Europeans collecting in China had not penetrated far into the mainland, but had found many plants in gardens around the mountain ranges between Yunnan and Shensi and s far east as Hupeh. In these areas the wild forms are found at altitudes of around five thousand feet.

Book  (Feb 1993)  Page(s) 29.  Includes photo(s).
 
2 photos: bush and blooms

Book  (1988)  Page(s) 30-31.  Includes photo(s).
 
Rosa banksiae 'Lutescens'. This single-flowered form of the yellow R. banksiae is of unknown origin and its date of introduction is not recorded. I have seen both the double and single forms apparently growing on the same plant in an old garden on the Riviera, and it may be that the single yellow appeared as a reverse sport on the commoner double.

Book  (1984)  Page(s) 186.  
 
Rosa banksiae ‘Lutescens’/Rosa banksiae f lutea Voss = Introduit dans le jardin de La Mortala, près de Menton, mais en Italie, en 1870. On ignore d’où Sir Thomas Hanbury le tenait. A l’état sauvage, il existe en Chine occidentale, dans les montagnes du Yunnan et du Shanxi. Ce rosier aux fleurs jaunes et simples embaume.