rosa laevigata. A species hermaphrodite rose, native to southern China, Taiwan, Laos and Vietnam. Latin for smooth or polished, meaning the glossy leaves. This rose has been naturalized for over 200 years in many parts of Georgia, Florida and Alabama, USA and has been adopted as the State flower of Georgia. Its familiar name is Cherokee Rose, but is also known as Snow-White Rose, Rosier Blanc de Neige, Rosa nivea and, in China as Chin Ying Tzu (Golden Cherry) because of its hips.
The flowers bloom in the early spring and are 6-10 cm in diameter, fragrant, with pure white petals and yellow stamens. In favourable conditions a second flowering of this hardy plant will occur . The flowers have a clove-like fragrance. The flowers are followed by bright red and bristly hips, 2-4 cm in diameter.
Facts About laevigata
The flowers are densely arranged along the length of the canes that form garlands of blossoms on the plant.
The plant is a climbing shrub, scrambling over other shrubs and small trees to heights of up to 10 m.
The evergreen climbing rose produces long, thorny, vine like canes that form a mound 10-12 ft (3-3.7 m) in height and about 15 ft (4.6 m) wide.
It is often seen sprawling across adjacent shrubs and other supports that it employs to climb to even greater heights.
The flower has antibacterial, anticholesterolemic, astringent, carminative, depurative, diuretic properties. The flowers are used in the treatment of dysentery and to restore hair cover.
There is a layer of hairs around the seeds just beneath the flesh of the fruit. These hairs can cause irritation to the mouth and digestive tract if ingested.
The plant is excessively thorny and generously supplied with a vivid green leaves.
The stem is also very bristly.
In Chinese medicine, the rosehips are used for male sexual ailments.
In 1838, the Cherokee people who had not moved voluntarily from their lands were forced to march to the west, so that the settlers and miners could take over the territory. No better symbol exists of the pain and suffering of the “Trail where they cried” than the Cherokee Rose. The mothers of the Cherokee grieved so much that the chiefs prayed for a sign to lift the mothers’ spirits and give them strength to care for their children. From that day forward, a beautiful new flower, a rose, grew wherever a mother’s tears fell to the ground. The rose is white, for the mother’s tears. It has a gold center, for the gold taken from the Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem that represent the seven Cherokee clans that made the journey. To this day, the Cherokee Rose prospers along the route of the “Trail of Tears”.
