DamascenaRose.com

One rose, two names

The checklist behind Kew's Plants of the World Online carries Rosa × damascena Herrm. (1762) as the accepted name in the family Rosaceae, with some forty later names folded in as synonyms, among them Rosa × bifera, the autumn damask.12 Kew's index also holds Rosa damascena Mill., 1768,3 the form standards bodies and most of the literature use.4 The multiplication sign is the point: a plant of hybrid origin.

Three parents, one plant repeated

A 2000 study sequenced ribosomal DNA in the four oldest Damask varieties and named three parents — Rosa moschata, Rosa gallica and Rosa fedtschenkoana — with chloroplasts from R. moschata alone, the maternal line. All four shared one profile and "have never been allowed to reproduce sexually".6 Microsatellite work widened it: oil-bearing accessions from Bulgaria, Iran and India and old European garden damasks carried identical profiles, and the industry rests on "a very narrow genepool".7 An older reading, R. gallica crossed with R. phoenicia, runs through the standard historical review; those profiles set it aside.89

Damascus in the name, Persia in the trail

The epithet points at Damascus, where the practice survives: in 2019 UNESCO inscribed Practices and craftsmanship associated with the Damascene rose in Al-Mrah, a village in rural Damascus — blooming from May, picking at dawn, drying, distilling, rose syrup and pastries.10 The trail runs east: reviewers place the damask roses' origin in ancient Persia, read Iran as their centre of diversity, and date crude rose distillation there to the late seventh century.9 That listing recognises a practice, not a product. DamascenaRose.com has no affiliation with UNESCO, any register or standards body, or any grower.

Trigintipetala, the thirty-petalled clone

Nearly all modern rose-oil production runs on one selection, Rosa damascena ‘Trigintipetala’, Latin for thirty-petalled. ‘Kazanlik’, ‘York and Lancaster’ and ‘Quatre Saisons’ trace to one ortet carried into Europe from the Middle East, and new lines come from clonal selection, not crossing: the trade guards the oil's composition.9 Botany keeps no separate taxon: Rosa × damascena f. trigintipetala (Dieck) R.Keller is a synonym.1

Where the damascena rose is grown

The rose-oil standard is written around oil "cultivated in Turkey, Morocco and Bulgaria".4 Reviewers name Bulgaria, Turkey and Iran as the largest producers, with growing volumes in India and China.9 In India the flower goes to attar: damask roses favour the Ganges soils around Kannauj, whose distillers work copper stills, the degh-bhapka method.11 "Rose oil" in trade is not one botanical thing, though: China's Kushui type has its own standard and a different parentage, Rosa sertata × Rosa rugosa.12

Steam, solvent, and what the water keeps

Two routes leave the petal. Steam distillation gives rose oil and rose water from one run; n-hexane gives the waxy concrete, ethanol re-extraction the absolute, held to mirror the flower closely.13 2-Phenylethanol, the round sweet-rose note, dissolves in water, so it "is usually partially lost in the distillation waters unless collected as rose water".14 Rose oil holds 0.88 to 2.2 per cent of it against 26 to 62 per cent citronellol and geraniol; absolute inverts that, 50 to 79 against 6.5 to 33.15 Yields are small: one figure puts 3,000 kg of petals behind a kilogram of oil,16 which is why rose oil is a frequent target for adulteration.15

The molecules people mean by rose

Monoterpene alcohols carry the body: citronellol, geraniol, nerol, linalool, with eugenol, farnesol and long alkanes.1417 Character comes from traces: the rose oxides and the carotenoid ketones β-ionone, β-damascone and β-damascenone, which shape rose flavour far beyond their share.17 Damascenone, characterised in 1970 from Bulgarian rose oil,18 is credited with "the lowest ortho- and retronasal detection thresholds of any odorant".19

A protected name, and what it does not cover

Rose oil is a legal object too: in September 2014 a Commission regulation entered Bulgarsko rozovo maslo in the European Union's register of protected geographical indications.5 That ties a product to an origin, not to a website.

Who builds on a name like DamascenaRose.com

• Fine fragrance houses. The rose accord is these alcohols and ketones.17
• Cosmetics and skincare. Rose water is a co-product of every distillation.14
• Essential-oil traders. Where standard and adulteration both matter.415
• Growers and distillers. Turkey, Morocco, Bulgaria, Iran, India.49
• Food and confectionery. Rose syrup and pastries belong to the craft.10
• Botanical publishers. Three parents, forty synonyms.16

1. Rosa × damascena Herrm.POWO, Kew
2. Rosa × damascena Herrm.World Flora Online
3. Rosa damascena Mill. (1768).IPNI, Kew
4. ISO 9842:2024, Essential oil of rose.ISO, 2024
5. Reg. (EU) 1020/2014: Bulgarsko rozovo maslo.EUR-Lex, 2014
6. Iwata H et al. Triparental origin of Damask roses.Gene, 2000
7. Rusanov K et al. Microsatellite analysis of R. damascena.Theor Appl Genet, 2005
8. Widrlechner MP. History and utilization of R. damascena.Economic Botany, 1981
9. Rusanov K et al. The oil-bearing Damask rose.Floric Ornam Biotechnol, 2009
10. The Damascene rose in Al-Mrah.UNESCO, 2019
11. Sachasinh R. Kannauj, a perfume capital.National Geographic, 2020
12. ISO 25157:2013, Essential oil of rose, Kushui.ISO, 2013
13. Dobreva A et al. Subcritical extracts from roses.Molecules, 2021
14. Villa C et al. Volatiles from R. x damascena petals.Molecules, 2022
15. Hupp AM. Rose alcohol composition.ACS Meas Sci Au, 2025
16. Charoimek N et al. Abiotic stress and rose aroma.Plants, 2023
17. Khezerlou A et al. Ingredients from R. damascena.Food Chem X, 2025
18. Demole E et al. Structure et synthèse de la damascénone.Helv Chim Acta, 1970
19. Sefton MA et al. Sensory impact of damascenone.J Agric Food Chem, 2011