Rosa 'Macrantha'

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R macrantha Desportes

This rose, at least according to the received version, was found by the French rosarian Lemeunier growing in a hedge near La Flèche in the department of Sarthe. He sent a plant (probably a propagation) to the Luxembourg garden, where it flowered in 1822. It was portrayed by Redouté in the same year under the name R. canina var. grandiflora Thory, and given specific rank by Desportes in 1838 (Fl. Sarthe, p. 77). It has been a source of puzzlement that Desportes’ own description, although agreeing with Thory’s, was based partly on a specimen identified as ‘Avessé, Martigné, (Goupil)’. The explanation appears to be that this specimen came from the garden of Lemeunier’s friend and fellow rosarian Goupil, of the Château de Martigné, Avessé, and was one of the former’s propagations from the original plant (Gentil, Roses Indig. Sarthe (1897), pp. 66–75). In this work Gentil voices the suspicion that the La Flèche plant was not in fact spontaneous but actually raised by Lemeunier himself, and accuses him and Desportes of inflating the flora of Sarthe with garden plants. Lemeunier is known to have raised roses from seed, one of his productions being the rose portrayed by Redouté as R. muscosa anemoneflora (Vol. III, p. 97, t.) In the Kew Herbarium there is a specimen of R. canina grandiflora Thory collected in the Luxembourg garden in 1829. From this, and from the original description and portrait, it is plain that this rose and the ‘Macrantha’ of gardens are not the same. The true R. macrantha of Desportes shows no obvious influence of R. gallica, having strong, uniform, hooked prickles. The leaves have the rachis hairy beneath; leaflets five or seven with whitish undersides; sepals with long expanded tips; and flowers of a vivid rose. The buds, according to Thory, were covered before expansion with a glaucous bloom, which can also be seen on the herbarium specimen.Subsequently, Desportes himself found a rose near La Flèche which he identified as R. macrantha and still another, also referred to R. macrantha, was found near the neighbouring town of Angers and transported to the Botanic Garden there. Specimens from these roses were distributed to various herbaria as R. macrantha and are probably responsible for the belief that R. macrantha is a hybrid between R. gallica and R. canina; since, unlike the true R. macrantha, they showed the influence of both species in their armature. It is tempting to suppose that the ‘Macrantha’ of gardens descends from the Angers plant, which might have been propagated and distributed by one of the many local nurseries. But Boreau, the Director of the garden, gives a description of the Angers plant in his Flore du Centre de la France, ed. 3 (1857), Vol. II, p. 227, and further details are provided by Crépin in his Primitiae (Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg., Vol. 8 (1869), p. 285). From these it is evident that the ‘Macrantha’ of gardens is an altogether different plant, whose origin remains obscure.