Book  (2001)  Page(s) 184.  
 
Plant Introductions in the period 1500-1599
c. 1573 Rosa damascena Damask Rose. Middle East.

Article (magazine)  (23 Dec 2000)  
 
Before the rose horticultural revolution in Europe, which started at the end of the 18th century, there existed four types of roses, namely, Gallica, Alba, Centifolia and Damask. The last is the most important type, because one of its varieties is planted the most abundantly for attar production. In addition Damask played a key role in European rose improvement in the 19th century. Many varieties of Damask are produced through hybridization breeding in the early 19th century. Hurst classified Damask into two types according to their flowering seasons. One is called Summer Damask, which blooms only in early summer, the other; Autumn Damask, which blooms again in autumn. Among them, 'Kazanlik' and 'York and Lancaster' are considered to be the oldest Summer Damask, while 'Quatre Saisons' to be the oldest Autumn Damask. Though 'Kazanlik' and 'Quatre Saisons' can barely be distinguished from each other by their flowering time, Hurst proposed two different combinations of wild roses as their ancestors: Rosa gallica and R. moschata for 'Quatre Saisons' and R. gallica and R. phoenicia for 'Kazanlik'. To confirm his hypothesis we analyzed the DNAs of the four Damask varieties and 80 wild roses. We conducted RAPD analyses with 24 primer sets of the four old Damask varieties and their putative ancestors. Although we could distinguish the ancestors by their RAPD patterns, there was no difference among the Damask. Therefore, we concluded that the Damask are derived from the same clone; namely they have been propagated vegetatively from the same ancestor. We then sequenced the psbA-trnH spacer region of chloroplast DNA. The Damask varieties all had the same sequence that was identical with one of the accessions of R. moschata. This suggested that the Damask have inherited R. moschata chloroplasts. We also conducted direct sequencing of ITS regions of rDNAs amplified by PCR. The universal primer set amplified heterogeneous DNAs and the sequencing could not be completed. This confirmed a hybrid origin of Damask. Next, based on the heterogeneous sequence, we designed different primer sets which we expected to be specific to the ancestor species. Three out of the four possible primers amplified homogeneous PCR products at a higher annealing temperature. Their sequences were identical with those of R. moschata, R. gallica and R. fedschenkoana, respectively. This indicated that the Damask had a mixture of ITS's derived from three distinct wild roses. According to Hurst's hypothesis R. gallica and R. moschata are the ancestors of Autumn Damask. Present study strongly suggests that these two ancestors generated the Summer as well as the Autumn Damask. This study also indicated obviously that R. moschata would be a female parent, and moreover, R. fedschenkoana would be included as another ancestor. The involvement of R. fedschenkoana could explain many external characteristics of Damask like the shape of rose hips, the leaf and stem colors, and the glandular bristles on peduncles found in a mutant of Damask and its progeny called moss. Thus, the present DNA data, together with the external traits, suggests that the Damask rose had a triparental origin.

Article (magazine)  (2000)  Page(s) 602.  
 
R. gigantea, R. moschata, and R. damascena were grouped into a cluster apart from the section Gallicanae because they appear to be monophyletic, whereas R. damascena was classified into the Section Gallicanae (Rehder, 1940). These species are more alike from morphological classification than from a molecular one , making them difficult to categorize.

Book  (2000)  Page(s) 570.  
 
‘Summer Damask’ /Rosa x damascena = Damas. Réputé avoir gagné l’Europe au XVIème siècle, venu d’Asie Mineure, ce vieux rosier pourrait en fait y avoir été introduit plus anciennement encore… bouquets légers de fleurs doubles, blanches ou roses, parfois striées, au parfum puissant. C’est un buisson érigé à la façon d’un rosier gallique, en plus robuste et plus souple...

Book  (1998)  Page(s) 455.  
 
Rosa x damascena Mill.....1,5 to 3 m high shrub with arching canes, sometimes climber-like, armed with many large and small hooked prickles; foliage elongated-ovoid, soft and finely pubescent with singly serrated edges, five to seven leaflets. The double blooms nodding, blooming in clusters up to 12, monochrome pink to red, inside petals smaller than the outer, strongly fragrant after expanding; sepals domed and pointed, glandular hairs, reflexing and not persistent after the bloom; heps long and narrow.
...0,02% to 0,05% essential oils in the blooms, whereby all parts of the bloom contain oil, the petals most (90%). Therefore, the whole bloom is used for the production of oil. In the petals 0,4% flavonoids (among others Quercetin, Kaempferol and their Galacto- and Glucosides), Triterpenes, such as beta-Amyrin, beta-Sitosterol, Stigmasterol, Ursol acid and 2-Hydoxyorsol acid, the diterpene Callitrin acid (4-Epi-dehydroabietin acid) and Benzoe acid. All bloom parts contain a lot of wax out of long chains of alkanes and olefins of various oxydation grades, which are co-extracted...Origin in Persia, came to Europe via Damascus with the crusaders; still wild in Caucasus, Syria, Morocco and Spain, in culture today in all temperate zones. The Oil rose is especially suitable for continental climate with larger temperature differences between winter and summer...The largest cultivation regions of the Oil rose are in Bulgaria in the protected sites between the Balkan, Sredna Gora and Rhodop mountains. Further culture in Turkey (center Isparta, Anatolia), Russia (Crimea, Moldavia, Caucasus), Syria, Iran and India, in the Mediterenean area, and recently also in USA. ..Drugs: Rosa aetheroleum, Rosa damascena HPUS 92.

Book  (1995)  Page(s) 128.  
 
[In the Shakespeare Garden at Charlecote Park...] Other shrubs which were known to Shakespeare, and mentioned in Gerard's Herball of 1597, include the cabbage rose or rose of Provence (Rosa x centifolia) and the damask rose (R. x damascena)...

Article (magazine)  (1994)  
 
... In general, 68 components were identified, representing c 88-98% of the oils: 27 hydrocarbons, 19 alcohols, eight aldehydes, six oxides and ethers, five esters, two ketones and one phenol. Citronellol (24.47-42.97%), nonadecane (6.44-18.95%), geraniol (2.11-18.04%), ethanol (0.00-13.43%), heneicosane (2.28-8.90%), nerol (0.75-7.57%) and 1-nonadecene (1.80-5.40%) were the major components as overall ranges of the samples....

Book  (Nov 1993)  Page(s) 12.  
 
Herodotus, "the father of history", writing in about 445 BC, speaks of double roses growing in the gardens of Midas, "each having sixty leaves (petals) and surpassing all other known roses in fragrance." This is thought to have been the Damask Rose.

Book  (Apr 1993)  Page(s) 580.  
 
Summer Damask Damask (Old Garden Rose), ('Damask Rose'; R. belgica Miller; R. calendarum Borkhausen; R. damascena Miller; R. gallica damascena Voss; R. polyanthos Roessig); Introduced to Europe from Asia Minor in 16th Century... red, pink or white, sometimes striped...

Book  (1993)  Page(s) 82.  Includes photo(s).
 
A Damask mentioned by Philip Miller in The Gardener's Dictionary in 1698. Good scent.