Rose

Roses (Rosa) are the namesake plant genus of the rose family (Rosaceae). These form a very well-defined genus by their typical characteristics of spines, rose hips, and imparipinnate leaves. They are shrubs with usually showy, five-petaled flowers. Most species are distributed only in the Holarctic. The science of roses is called rhodology. Horticulturally, a distinction is made between wild roses and cultivated roses. The rose has been called the "queen of flowers" since ancient Greece. Roses have been cultivated as ornamental plants for more than 2000 years. The rose oil extracted from the petals is an important basic ingredient in the perfume industry. Rose species are deciduous, rarely evergreen shrubs. Their independently erect or climbing shoot axes are up to 4 meters high. Ground-lying shoot axes become longer, and some are prostrate or creeping. Many species develop woody ground stolons and then form colonies. Shoot axils may be covered with glands or hairs, and both may be absent. The presence of glands is coupled with more or less strong scent. Pubescence (indument) may involve all above-ground organs (except rose hips and stamens); the shape, number, and distribution of hairs are characteristic of particular clades, and pubescence is an ontogenetically constant feature (senescence is very rare).

In everyday language, a flower refers either to a flowering plant that "produces" larger, eye-catching blossoms, or to a "single blossom of a flower with a stem", or is used as a short form for flowering vine. It is often used as an ornament, e.g. as a cut flower in a bouquet, a floral wreath or a floral arrangement. In the visual arts, flowers as a floral motif are a frequently depicted theme. In botany, on the other hand, the term flower is clearly defined and is separated in particular from the term blossom. While a flower (as a single flower or inflorescence) is defined by its function in pollination, a blossom (as a stunted shoot with metamorphosed leaves) is a term clearly defined by morphology.

A flower is the pollination-biological unit of flowering plants. It is its task to attract pollinators or it forms a technical-functional unit. Flower is therefore an ecologically-functionally defined term. Thus, flowers pollinated by animals are classified according to their pollinators, such as the bird flowers or the beetle flowers. A flower is defined as a shoot of limited growth in the service of sexual reproduction. Its structure is clearly divided into perianth, stamens and carpels. Tulip or rose flowers are good examples of this. They do not have to be conspicuously built or coloured; grasses also have flowers.