Website/Catalog  (1929)  Page(s) 70.  
 
Rose Species
Rosa Ecæ, Aitchison. (Turkestan.) Pale, yellowish white flowers, 1 to 1½ inches across, borne freely along the erect leafy branches very early in the season. Prickly stems 4 to 5 feet tall, with finely divided foliage which, when wet, emits a strong odor of formic acid. Its dark green shiny leaves and red thorns on the branches make it very attractive the whole year round.

Book  (1917)  Page(s) 91.  
 
Rosa ecae Aitch. A very spiny, shrubby rose, flowering in early summer, with an abundance of small, deep-yellow flowers. Recommended for hybridization to create perfectly hardy yellow roses. (Adapted from a note of Frank N. Meyer, dated July 10, 1910).

Article (magazine)  (1915)  Page(s) 29-30.  
 
[After R. Hugonis] the next species to flower here, R. Ecae, is a very spiny shrub with small leaves and pale yellow flowers not more than an inch in diameter. It is a native of Afghanistan, where it is common on dry mountain ridges, and of Samarkand and although of some botanical interest it has little to recommend it as a garden plant in this region. In 1820 an English botanist found in a collection of Chinese drawings in London the picture of a double yellow Rose to which he gave the name of R. xanthina, and many years later the single-flowered form of this Rose was found growing wild in Mongolia by the French missionary David. English botanists have usually confused the Chinese Rose with R. ecae and it apparently had not been cultivated in the United States or Europe until 1908 when the Arboretum received from the Department of Agriculture seeds of this Rose gathered in China by its collector, Mr. F.N. Meyer. Both the single and double-flowered forms were raised from this seed and have flowered in the Arboretum this year. The flowers are larger than those of R. Ecae and bright clear yellow. These Roses appear to be perfectly at home in the Arboretum, but it is too soon to speak of their value in North American gardens. The single and the double-flowered varieties are much cultivated in the gardens of Peking.

Book  (1906)  Page(s) 53.  
 
3.459. Ecæ, Pimprenelle, (Kew) 1883 jaune pâle

Book  (1902)  Page(s) 151.  
 
Species: R. xanthina, Lind.
5659. Ecae (Kew), wild rose

Magazine  (1901)  Page(s) 82.  
 
Quotes a lengthy botanical description of the presumed R. xanthina discovered in Afghanistan by Dr. Aitchison. The description is by M. Paul Hariot from Le Journal de la Société nationale d'horticulture de France.

Book  (1900)  Page(s) 350.  
 
Rosa ecae (Gardeners' Chronicle 1885, xxiv. 468; Icones Plantarum t. 1329.) Hardy. A distinct species with small leaves having about seven leaflets, red shoots, broad based prickles, and small yellow flowers (R. xanthina, Lindl.) Afghanistan.

Magazine  (1 Jul 1899)  Page(s) Tab 7666.  Includes photo(s).
 
[Pictured and named as Rosa xanthina Lindl. but actually Rosa Ecae Aitchison. Note: this is the R. xanthina Hook. referenced in Trees & Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles]

Rosa xanthina.
Native of Central Asia and Afghanistan.
Nat. Ord. Rosaceae. — Tribe Roseae.
Genus Rosa, Linn. ; (Benth. & Hook.f. Gen. Plant. vol. i. p. 025.)

Rosa (Pimpinellifoliae) xanthina; frutex 3-4-pedalis, erectus, ramosissimus, spinosus, fere eglandulosus, ramulis rubris glabris, aculeis semipollicaribus homomorphis confertis rectis rigidis basi compressis et valde dilatatis, foliis ramulis floriferis confertis 1/2-1 poll, longis 6-9 foliolatis, foliolis ovato-oblongis oblongis v. orbicularibus ad 1/4 poll, longis serrulato-dentatis subtus praecipue glandulosis, stipulis oblongis subacutis integerrimis, floribus in ramulos brevissimos terminales solitariis ad 1 poll. diam. aureis, pedunculis brevibus glaberrimis v. glanduloso-pilosis, sepalis lanceolatis integerrimis v. apices versus paucidentatis extus glandulosis intus tomentosis, petalis sepalis longioribus obovato-oblongis, stylis liberis lanuginosia apicibus glabris, fructibus globosis ad 1/4 poll. diam. gracile pedunculatis glaberrimis nitidis sepalis reflexis coronatis, acheniis primum villosis demum glabris.
R. xanthina, Lindl. Bos. Monog. p. 132 (nomen). Crépin in Comptes rendus Soc Bot. Belg. vol. xxv. pars ii. p. 14. Franch in Nouv. Arch. Mus. Par. Ser. II. vol. v. (Plant. David.), p. 117, t. 15/2. Forbes et Hemsl. in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. vol. xxiii. p. 255. Koehne, Deutsch. Dendrolog. p. 300.
R. platyacantha, Schrenk in Bull. Acad. Petersb. vol. x. (1842), p. 254. Ledeb. Fl. Ross. vol. ii. p. 75.
R. pimpinellifolia, var. platyacantha, Crép. Mater., fasc. v. p. 319.
R. Ecae, Aitchis. in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. vol. xviii. (1880), p. 54. et xix. (1882), p. 162, t. viii. Oliv. in Hook. Ic. Plant. vol. xiv. p. 21, t. 1329. Christ, in Boiss. Fl. Orient. Suppl. p. 207.

The discovery of Rosa xanthina, a central Asiatic species, in a single valley of Afghanistan, is a noteworthy fact in geographical distribution, for no other collector in that country had met with it. In the Kuram Valley of Afghanistan it abounds, both wild, and cultivated (for hedges), forming with Amygdalus eburnea the greater part of the scrub in the stony ridges of the Harieb district, at an elevation of six thousand to seven thousand feet, where it was found by the late Dr. Aitchison, F.R.S.,when accompanying General (now Lord) Roberts, on the survey of that valley. It is a plant of very wide distribution. Lat. 33° N. is its southern as well as its western limit so far as is known, but it reappears in Turkestan, and spreads into Soongaria, the Altai Mts., Mongolia, and N. China, its northern limit being probably about lat. 45° N. The specific name Ecae is derived from the initials of Mrs. Aitchison's name, given before the plant was identified with Lindley's Rosa xanthina. The specimen figured is from a plant raised at the Royal Gardens from seed sent by Dr. Aitchison in 1880. It flowers in June.

Descr. — A rigid, erect shrub, three to four feet high, stem and branches armed with crowded, straight prickles about half an inch long, with dilated, compressed bases, branches and branchlets leafy, glandular, red when young. Leaves small, hardly an inch long, crowded on the branchlets, rhachis eglandular, stipules oblong, entire, sub-acute, leaflets five to nine, about a quarter of an inch long, from oblong to orbicular, serrulate-toothed, glandular beneath. Flowers peduncled, solitary at the base of the branchlets, about an inch in diameter, golden-yellow ; . peduncles glabrous, or glandular-hairy. Calyx tube globose ; sepals lanceolate, entire, or toothed towards the tips, glandular externally, tomentose within. Petals orbicular. Styles free, tomentose, tips glabrous. Fruit globose, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, glabrous, crowned with the reflexed sepals. Achenes at length glabrous. J. D. H

Fig. 1 and 2, Petals; 3, fruit, both of nat. size; 4, carpel, enlarged.

Magazine  (1 Aug 1883)  Page(s) 114.  
 
Rosa Ecœ.—Le Rosa Ecœ, jolie espèce, à fleurs jaunes, vient d'être introduite de l'Afghanistan, par le docteur Aitchison, ainsi que nous l'avons déjà publié et comme l'indique notre confrère de la Revue horticole.
MM. William Paul et fils, rosiéristes à Waltham-Cross, près Londres, qui éditent le Rosa Ecœ, le décrovent ainsi: L'espèce se rapproche un peu du rosier Pimprenelle, mais ses fleurs sont jaunes et ses aiguillons sont uniformes.
Le docteur Aitchison, dit que dans les régions où il croit naturellement, ce rosier est très vigoureux; ses fleurs très nombreuses ont à peu près deux centimètres et demi de diamètre et se développent sur des bourgeons courts de chaque côté des branches.

Magazine  (1882)  Page(s) vol. 19, p. 161.  
 
165 (1879). Rosa Ecae, Aitch. (Plate VIII. figs. 1-3.) 
Erratum. — At line 11, page 55, vol. xviii. Linn, Soc. Journal, for "achenia villosissima" read "styli villosissimi; achenia primum villosa, pilis demum deciduis."