Rosa damascena trigintipetala

The pink shrub roses used to make rose oil and rose absolute for perfumery are from two main varieties, the Centifolia rose, and the Damask rose, or Rosa damascena trigintipetala. These grow in Bulgaria, Turkey and Morocco, and I was lucky enough to visit the rose growing areas in El Kelaa des M’Gouna, Morocco, in 1997. There, the rose bushes are actually the side crop, used as hedges to assist and protect the wheat that is also being grown. The town of El Kelaa and nearby growing areas are part of a large oasis in the Sahara Desert.

This week I had cause to look again at my journal from this visit, as I wanted to know the meaning of “trigintipetala”, and it was not that easy to find, being that some of the Latin translators online simply translated the word into the same word! Eventually I found one that did translate it, or I translated it in parts until I found it and then tried it in reverse. The meaning is “thirty petals”. I had thought “tri” must be three anyway. These are very beautiful multi-petalled roses.

I can remember this like it was yesterday, even though it is now 26 years ago. And I remember the heady aroma of the roses in the air, in the factory where they were about to be distilled. They smelled amazing! When I got back to work, I examined all of our rose perfumes, and not one smelled like those roses did in the air, so I had to create one.