Book  (1981)  Page(s) 86-87.  
 
R. ecae Aitch. syn. R. xanthina Hook. in Bot. Mag., not Lindl.; R. xanthina var. ecae (Aitch.) Boulenger
..About 4 ft high in the wild...taller and laxer in cultivation; prickles crowded, up to ½ in. long, broad at the base, bristles none. Leaves 1 in. or less, [leaflets[ usually seven, sometimes five or nine, which are oval or almost round, ¼ in or so long, glandular beneath...Flowers solitary, about 1 in. across, rich buttercup yellow...Fruit globose about ⅜ in. wide, crowned by deflexed, persistent sepals.
Native to N.E. Afghanistan, N.W. Pakistan, and bordering part of Russia; introduced to Britain by Dr. Aitchison, who found it during the survey of the Kurram valley .... The name is an adaptation of Mrs. Aitchison's initials -- 'E.C.A.' It is closely allied to R. xanthina.

Book  (1980)  Page(s) 114.  
 
Charles A. Walker Jr. The ECA Mystery Solved.
.....It has been nearly a century since Rosa ecae was given its puzzling acronym of latinized initials. We still don't know a great deal about the rose or that Scottish lady, Eleanor Carmichael Craig Aitchison; but at least E.C.A. is no longer a mystery.

Book  (1976)  Page(s) 177.  
 
Botanical roses on the territory of the USSR, whose independence requires precising...
Rosa ecae Aitchis. - According to vvedenski a synonym for R. maracandica Bge.

Book  (1975)  Page(s) 25.  
 
R. ecae....comes from Afganistan and was brought to the UK in 1880 by Dr J.E.T. Aitchison who served as an army surgeon in the Afghan war of that time. He names it after his wife's initials E.C.A., and has made rose writers made very since by not revealing what the 'E.C.' stands for. Until 1940 it was sold in America as R. primula. Personally, I think its interest lies from Golden Chersonese, first available in 1970 and produced by E.F. Allen - an outstanding scientific expert on, and an amateur grower of roses - in conjunction with Canary Bird.

Book  (1971)  Page(s) 354.  
 
R.ecae Aitch. in Journ. Linn. Soc. XVIII (I88O) 54 et XIX (1882) 161; Crep. in Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg. XXVII, II (1888) 102. - R. platyacantha var. kokanica Rgl. in A. H. P. V., fasc. II (1878) 313 p. p. — Ic: Aitch., I.e. XIX, tab. 8; Oliver in Hook., Ic. Plant. XIV (1881) tab. 1329; Hook. f. in Curtis Bot. Mag. LV (1899) tab. 7666 (sub R. xanthina).
Shrub, 1 m high, with flexuous shoots and gray bark; prickles of uniform length (pricklets and bristles absent), purple or whitish, erect, often inclined upward, long, thin, flattened, with considerably broadened, decurrent base, often densely crowded and contiguous; petioles and rachis often finely glandular; stipules narrow, with divergent auricles, margin finely glandular; leaflets 5—9 (11), very small, (2) 5—7 mm long, glaucescent green, oblong or orbicular, dentate or fairly bidentate, with 4—9 predominantly obtuse teeth on each side, glabrous above, glabrous or pubescent beneath, bearing minute yellowish glands. Flowers solitary, small, usually ca. 1.5, rarely to 2.5 cm in diameter; pedicels about as long as the very small hypanthium or rather longer, thin, smooth; sepals 4—5 mm long, simple, lanceolate, with dense hairs above, often lightly pubescent below, persistent, spreading or recurved; petals lemon-yellow, longer than sepals; fruit subglobose, very tiny, 6—8 mm long, black -violet, on slender pedicels. May— June.
Mountains.— Centr. Asia: Pam.-Al. Gen. distr.: Afghanistan. Described from the Kuram Valley between Habibkalla and Alikhel. Type in London (Kew).

Article (misc)  (1950)  Page(s) 114.  
 
R. Ecae ('Mrs. Aitchison's Rose') found by that great plant hunter, Surgeon-Major J.E.T. Aitchison, on the high plains of Afghanistan... usually the first rose of spring to bloom

Magazine  (Jul 1940)  Page(s) 154.  
 
"Pest-Proof, Fool-Proof, All-Purpose Roses". Some Outstanding Species Described By C. R. McGinnes
I will list briefly the characteristics of some of the outstanding sorts among the more than two hundred which we have in our garden at this time. Starting with the earliest ones, the yellow group, we have R. Ecae, then, about three days later, R. primula. Both roses are very beautiful shrubs about six feet high. There seem to be two different roses under the name of R. Ecae, one discovered by Aitcheson in Afghanistan, the other named by Dr. Rehder. The latter has recently been changed to R. primula, although Beckwith maintains that it is a variety of R. xanthina known as Kokanica. The flowers of the former are deeper in shade than the latter, both being a light yellow; the foliage is identical except that R. primula has an odd fragrance, something like Scotch whiskey

Book  (1936)  Page(s) 230.  
 
R. ecae (pimpinellifolia) Aitchison 1883; variety of R. xanthina; pale yellowish white, 4 cm, free-blooming, short stems, many red prickles, growth 7/10, upright, 1 m. Afghanistan, Turkestan. Sangerhausen

Book  (1934)  Page(s) 283.  
 
Ecae (species).- Lemon yellow; vigorous; dwarf, bush, low hedge; prune lightly; foliage very beautiful and fragrant of incense.

Book  (1933)  Page(s) 62.  
 
R. ecae - Central China. Said by Prof. C. S. Sargent to be the most beautiful shrub rose in the Arnold Arboretum - pale yellow flowers one and one-half Inch, soon turning pure white. The foliage is beautiful, small and glossy and persistent, emitting in wet weather an odor of formol.