Rosa laevigata

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Rosa laevigata

An evergreen species climber with long canes and large single white flowers with bright yellow stamens. It is a strong and vigorous climber, using its thorns to grip onto structures very well. Light green foliage. Flowers throughout spring only and unlikely to flower in its first year.

  • Light, clove-like fragrance
  • Height: 6 m

The Cherokee Rose

Among other names, R. laevigata is also known as the ‘Cherokee Rose’. It was once thought to be native to the southeastern US and cultivated by the Cherokee, but it is actually a native of southern China, Taiwan, Laos, and Vietnam. It was even made the state flower of the state of Georgia in 1916 due to it supposedly originating “among the aborigines” and being “indigenous to its soil” according to the General Assembly. Embarrassingly, this was not the case, but it has retained this status in Georgia. They did, however, slip in a state wildflower in 1979 to partly account for this.

So, how did this happen, and what’s the real story? The plant was introduced the US around 1780, and it quickly became naturalised in many areas. Nurseryman Thomas Affleck also played a role in its spread, widely selling R. laevigata to large homesteads and plantations in the South as a hedging plant in the mid-1800s. By 1916, it had naturalised so well that it was thought to be native, and its association with the Cherokee had been established through legend.

The Trail of Tears

To understand the legend of the Cherokee Rose, one must know a little about one particularly dark chapter in US history. In 1838, Cherokee people were forcibly removed from their nation’s land in Georgia, and made to march around 1,600 km to Oklahoma. The Cherokee endured freezing temperatures, snowstorms, and pneumonia during the bitter winter. Of the 16,000 Cherokee people to have been relocated this way, between 4,000 and 8,000 are estimated to have died during the journey. This is called the Trail of Tears.

Legend of the Cherokee Rose

From here, history intersects with legend, and brings us back to R. laevigata.

On the Trail of Tears, the mothers of the Cherokee were in such grief that the elders feared they would be unable to help their children survive the journey and rebuild their nation. The elders called upon Heaven Dweller, ga lv la di e hi, and told him of their people’s suffering. Gal v la di e hi spoke to them, saying that he would give them a sign in the morning if they looked back along the trail. It would be a plant with seven leaves for the seven clans of the Cherokee, five white petals to symbolise their tears, and a pile of gold in the centre to remind the Cherokee of the white man’s greed for the gold found on the Cherokee homeland.

The next morning a beautiful white rose began to grow where each of the mother’s tears had fallen, covering the trail where they had walked. As the strong and beautiful plant protected its blossoms, the mothers knew they would have the strength to protect their children.

Rosa laevigata, The Cherokee Rose, grows along the route of the Trail of Tears into eastern Oklahoma today.

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