Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 60, No. 13, pp. 3611–3613, 2009
doi:10.1093/jxb/erp215 Advance Access publication 2 July, 2009
PLANT CULTURE
Symbolism of plants: examples from European-Mediterranean culture
presented with biology and history of art
Riklef Kandeler1 and Wolfram R. Ullrich2,*
1
2
Institute of Botany, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Gregor Mendelstr. 33, 1180 Wien, Austria
Institute of Botany, Darmstadt University of Technology, Kirchbergweg 6, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany
OCTOBER: Roses
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.
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.
Biology
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.
Roses in antiquity and the Middle Ages
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
Symbolism
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
Fig. 1. Gallic or vinegar rose, Rosa gallica. Hadersdorf near
Vienna (Kandeler).
* To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected]
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3612 | Plant Culture
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;
Fig. 2. Fragment of mosaic floor showing flower garland with
roses (and a cross-rose). Altar room, Palace V, Pergamum (Asia
Minor), 2nd century BC (Bingöl, 1997).
Fig. 3. Relief table with cross, surrounded by eight entangled
rosettes, Byzantine period. Museum of Ancient Corinth (Kandeler).
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 rosegrove’ (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.
Fig. 4. Jan Brueghel the Elder. Flower garland with roses around
Mary with the Child and Elizabeth, John the Baptist, and angels.
Early 17th century (Hairs, 1985).
Plant Culture | 3613
Roses in the Modern Age
References
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.
Beuchert M. 2004. Symbolik der Pflanzen. Frankfurt, Leipzig: InselTaschenbuch.
Bingöl O. 1997. Malerei und Mosaik der Antike in der Türkei. Mainz:
Ph von Zabern.
Hairs M-L. 1985. Les paintres flamands de fleurs au XVIIe siècle.
Bruxelles: Editions d’Art, Lefèbvre et Gillet.
Heinz-Mohr G, Sommer V. 1988. Die Rose. Entfaltung eines
Symbols. München: E Diederichs.
Jacob A, Grimm H, Grimm W, Müller B. 1990. Alte Rosen und
Wildrosen. Stuttgart: Ulmer.
Kordes W. 1960. Das Rosenbuch. Anzucht–Pflege–Verwendung der
Rose, 8th edn. Hannover: Schaper.
Krüssmann G. 1974. Rosen, Rosen, Rosen. Hamburg-Berlin: P
Parey, cited in: Der Palmengarten (Frankfurt), Special edition 1/85.
Sprengel K. 1822. Theophrasts Naturgeschichte der Gewächse. 1st
Part: translation. 2nd Part: explanations. Altona: JF Hammerich.