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  (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  (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]
The discovery of Rosa xanthina, a central Asiatic species, in a single valley of Afghanistan, is a noteworthy fact in georgraphical 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)...at an elevation of six thousand to seven thousand feet, where it was found by the late Dr. Aitchison, F.R.S....It is a plant of very wide distribution...it reappears in Turkestan, and spreads into Soongaria, the Altai Mts., Mongolia, and N. China. 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 here is from a plant raised at the Royal Gardens from seed send by Dr. Aitchison in 1880. It flowers in June.
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, rachis eglandular...leaflets five to nine, about a quarter of an inch long, oblong to orbicular...glandular beneath. Flowers solitary...about an inch in diameter, golden yellow...Calyx tube globose...sepals...entire or toothed....fruit globose, about a quarter of an inch in diameter...crowned with reflexed sepals....

Article (website)  
 
S'étend de l'Afghanistan, au Nord Ouest du Pakistan et aux confins de la Russie septentrionale. Ramenée d'une expédition dans la vallée du Kurram par le Docteur Aitchinson vers 1880, elle est ainsi nommée d'après les initiales de sa femme: E.C.A. Très proche de R.xanthina, sa fleur est un peu plus petite (environ 2.5 cm) et solitaire. Bois foncé fortement armé. Feuilles petites (1cm) ovales ou arrondies. Tendance à faire de grandes pousses isolées. Aime la chaleur. Peut atteindre plus de 2 m.