PLANT CULTURE Symbolism of Plants: Examples from European-Mediterranean Culture Presented with Biology and History of Art

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 Institute of Botany, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Gregor Mendelstr. 33, 1180 Wien, Austria 2 Institute of Botany, Darmstadt University of Technology, Kirchbergweg 6, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/60/13/3611/529174 by guest on 30 September 2021

OCTOBER: Roses The rose is amongst the most highly esteemed of all garden across the Middle East to Europe. Rose flowers are widely flowers in many cultures with breeding and selection known in used even today as symbols of love and beauty, valued for the Middle East from quite early in history. Modern roses their shape and their fragrance. They have also frequently have been selected variously for beauty, size, form, fragrance, been associated with nobility and are used as emblems of repeated flowering, cold tolerance, and resistance to pests and leadership and distinction, as in the British House of Tudor diseases. This hedgerow rogue can now be enjoyed in flower at and as the state flower of Texas and of Alberta amongst any time of year and the impact and beauty of their blooms others. The rose is also important in fragrances and in has, over millennia, been reflected in their value to symbolism. cooking, but the rose flower remains a symbol recognized worldwide.

Biology

The genus Rosa within the Rosaceae comprises a large Roses in antiquity and the Middle Ages group of wild species and a vast array of garden hybrids. Usually rose flowers have five sepals and petals and the The oldest written testimony of the use of roses by humans leaves are pinnate. Their stems are prickly, a feature of originates from Mesopotamia. In the royal graves of Uruk, contrast to the serenity of the flowers and of value in the the cultural centre of the Sumerians (now ruins called symbolism of the rose. The prickles aid its climbing and Warka, in southern Iraq), Sir Leonard Wolley found rambling and deter foragers. Persia (Iran) and China are cuneiform-script texts reporting on warfare by Sargon of generally regarded as the original homes of today’s classic Akkad (24th century BC) whose empire reached from garden roses (Kordes, 1960; Jacob et al.,1990).Kru¨ssmann (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.

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 Fig. 1. Gallic or vinegar rose, Rosa gallica. Hadersdorf near originated in Persia and from there spread to India and Vienna (Kandeler).

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ª The Author [2009]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: [email protected] 3612 | Plant Culture western Persia to Asia Minor. Akkad crossed the Taurus Acropolis of Pergamum, now Turkey] and, at this time, the mountains and brought back grapevines, figs, and roses rose became the plant of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. (Heinz-Mohr and Sommer, 1988; Beuchert, 2004). For the Romans, roses were the flowers of Venus (corre- By the time of the ancient Greeks, floor mosaics show sponding to Aphrodite) symbolizing spring, love, beauty, elaborate rose garlands with double blooms [Fig. 2; 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 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/60/13/3611/529174 by guest on 30 September 2021 Lochner’s and Martin Schongauer’s ‘Mary in the rose- grove’ (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 Fig. 2. Fragment of mosaic floor showing flower garland with Museum of Ancient Corinth (Fig. 3). Here, eight rosettes, roses (and a cross-rose). Altar room, Palace V, Pergamum (Asia each of them twisted with the neighbouring one, and on the Minor), 2nd century BC (Bingo¨ l, 1997). 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 Fig. 3. Relief table with cross, surrounded by eight entangled Mary with the Child and Elizabeth, John the Baptist, and angels. rosettes, Byzantine period. Museum of Ancient Corinth (Kandeler). Early 17th century (Hairs, 1985). Plant Culture | 3613

Roses in the Modern Age References In Flanders and Holland, a school of flower painting Beuchert M. 2004. Symbolik der Pflanzen. Frankfurt, Leipzig: Insel- became active between the end of the 16th century and the Taschenbuch. middle of the 18th century (Hairs, 1985). Its founder was Bingo¨ lO.1997. Malerei und Mosaik der Antike in der Tu¨rkei. Mainz: Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625), the son of Pieter Ph von Zabern. Brueghel the Elder, who framed his pictures with flowers Hairs M-L. 1985. Les paintres flamands de fleurs au XVIIe sie`cle. related to the subject of the pictures. In a painting of ` Mary with the Child and Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Bruxelles: Editions d’Art, Lefebvre et Gillet. and angels, the landscape is surrounded by flower gar- Heinz-Mohr G, Sommer V. 1988. Die Rose. Entfaltung eines lands rich in roses (Fig. 4). The Dutch schools empha- Symbols.Mu¨ nchen: E Diederichs. sized the pleasures of life with rich, abundant plantlife. Jacob A, Grimm H, Grimm W, Mu¨ ller B. 1990. Alte Rosen und This was the transition towards the more decorative use Wildrosen. Stuttgart: Ulmer. of flowers in the following centuries. Exquisite paint-

Kordes W. 1960. Das Rosenbuch. Anzucht–Pﬂege–Verwendung der Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/60/13/3611/529174 by guest on 30 September 2021 ings of rose varieties were produced for the French Rose, 8th edn. Hannover: Schaper. crown by Redoute´ (1759–1840). The current cut ﬂower market is worth billions of dollars a year and the rose Kru¨ ssmann G. 1974. Rosen, Rosen, Rosen. Hamburg-Berlin: P remains a perennial favourite, especially as a token of Parey, cited in: Der Palmengarten (Frankfurt), Special edition 1/85. love. Thus the symbolic meaning of the rose has not been Sprengel K. 1822. Theophrasts Naturgeschichte der Gewa¨chse. 1st totally forgotten. Part: translation. 2nd Part: explanations. Altona: JF Hammerich.