\n<\/p>\n
Roses are the \u201cqueen of flowers,\u201d and they\u2019ve earned the title: from Romeo and Juliet to Beauty and the Beast and ABC\u2019s The Bachelor franchise, roses are the enduring symbol of passion, romance and love. It\u2019s estimated that more than 250 million roses are produced for Valentine\u2019s Day every year, and florists sell more on that day than on any other holiday. It\u2019s also the official flower of the U.S. (thank former president Ronald Reagan). But the rose wasn\u2019t always so regal, red and plump\u2014in fact, its origins are much more humble and more ancient than you might think.<\/p>\n
Roses first emerged some 35 million years ago during the Eocene epoch, which was when early horses and canids first appeared. And the flowers likely looked very different from the bunches we pick out today: one 2025 analysis of roses collected across China found that the ancestors of modern roses were probably yellow, not red. Their petals were also rather flat, and there were likely just five of them, explains Peter Kukielski, an expert on roses and author of the book Rosa: The Story of the Rose.<\/p>\n
Thankfully for roses, aside from their beauty, they also have important medicinal properties\u2014rose hips are full of vitamin C\u2014and that helped earn the flower a high status among rulers throughout history who \u201cbrought the rose to prominence,\u201d Kukielski says. Cleopatra, for example, is said to have doused her boat\u2019s sails in rose perfume when she visited the Roman general Mark Antony.<\/p>\n
If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n
Modern roses, as we know them, date to 1867, when enthusiasts in Europe bred a \u201chybrid perpetual\u201d rose with a \u201ctea rose.\u201d The product, a \u201chybrid tea\u201d rose, had the classic rose shape\u2014a pointed bud centered high on a single stem.<\/p>\n
After that, the rose industry really bloomed. \u201cThis flower form became all the rage,\u201d Kukielski says. Indeed, if you\u2019re lucky enough to receive a bouquet of roses for Valentines Day this year, chances are that it\u2019s a hybrid rose, although hybrid tea roses are just one of more than 40 classes of the flower.<\/p>\n
But hybridization had its side effects. By breeding roses for their shape, Kukielski says, the hearty flower that\u2019d survived in the wild for tens of millions of years became weakened, losing some of its disease resistance. \u201cPeople were producing roses at such a fever for this flower form that, genetically, things got lost,\u201d he says. The flowers have also lost most of their scent.<\/p>\n
Roses are still changing today. Biologists are working to make roses more disease-resistant so that they can grow without harsh or toxic chemicals and to undo some of humans\u2019 evolutionary meddling. Some growers have also started to focus more on roses that are appropriate to their local climates, Kukielski says.<\/p>\n
The flowers could morph even further, too: In 2024 research published in Science suggested that the type of \u201cthorns\u201d found on roses and other plants stem from mutations in a single gene. The findings could \u201cpave the way\u201d for scientists to create roses without such thorns (which are technically considered \u201cprickles\u201d rather than true thorns) using gene editing, the authors wrote.<\/p>\n
At least for now, no other flower has come close to unseating the rose from its throne. And that\u2019s how it should be, as far as Kukielski is concerned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one plant has the ability to transcend all of our generations,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I just think that’s special.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Roses are the \u201cqueen of flowers,\u201d and they\u2019ve earned the title: from Romeo and Juliet to Beauty and the Beast and ABC\u2019s The Bachelor franchise, roses are the enduring symbol of passion, romance and love. It\u2019s estimated that more than 250 million roses are produced for Valentine\u2019s Day every year, and florists sell more on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[131,6959,8481,8513,23033],"class_list":{"0":"post-44453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-day","9":"tag-evolved","10":"tag-flower","11":"tag-roses","12":"tag-valentines"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}