MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC CROPS (2+1)

Description of the plant

R. damacena is a perennial shrub with a long lifespan of 20 to 30 years under cultivation. It grows to a height of 2.5-3m. The stems possess numerous, moderately hooked, falcate prickles of unequal size, intermixed with glandular bristles. The leaf is stipulate, compound and imparipinnate, with 5-7 leaflets: the stipules are adnate. The leaflets are moderately large, ovate to oblong and serrate. The flowers are borne in groups of 5 to 7 in axillary terminal corymbs. The flowers are sweet-scented, pink, red or sometimes white-striped. The pedicel possesses densely packed acicular and hispid glands. The sepals are leafy, pinnate, reflexed, and persist after flowering. The petals are over seventy, light-pink fading to white. The fruit is pseudobacate, made up of several hard achenes enclosed within a succulent calyx tube. The fruits (hips) are ovoid, bright-red, pulpy and rich in Vitamin C.

The damask rose has many commercial varieties known in cultivation. R.damascena var. trigintipetala is called Kanzanlik rose and is grown in Bulgaria. This is similar to R. damascena which is grown in Aligarh district. Another strain of R. damascena var. bifera is grown in the Kannuaj district of Uttar Pradesh. In the Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh two other types are grown, one of which flowers twice a year and is called ‘Dofasali’, the other flower only once, as usual.