Book  (1988)  Page(s) 14-15.  Includes photo(s).
 
Rosa primula Boulenger (R. ecae subsp. primula (Boul.) Roberts) ...raised from seed collected by F.N. Meyer in 1910 near Samarkand in central Asia, but has not been recognized in recent local Russian floras. It makes a bush up to 2 m high, with very aromatic foliage and exceptionally young leaves which may have 15 leaflets on strong shoots, 9-13 on flowering side branches. It differs from R. ecae and R. kokanica also in its pale yellow flowers.

Book  (2 Jan 1984)  Page(s) 26-27.  
 
Rosa primula Bouleng. Description

Book  (1984)  Page(s) 102.  
 
Isabel Chapman, Ferntree, Tasmania. Old World Roses That I Love.
Other roses of which I am very fond of are Primula, a tall grower with small ferny leaves, which pervades the garden with a smell of incense.

Magazine  (1982)  Page(s) 16. Vol 4, No. 2.  
 
Ken Nobbs. Species Roses in new Zealand.
....If the yellow colour in our roses had been introduced from say R. ecae with its fine unfading yellow and its superior resistance to disease, we would surely have been spared much disease among our hybrid teas and floribundas. R. ecae is difficult to propagate, indeed I still do not possess it, having had it on order for several years and being a diploid rose there are problems with crossing it with tetraploid garden roses and maintaining fertility.

Website/Catalog  (1982)  Page(s) 35.  
 

Rosa primula (Species) ‘Incense Rose’.  The earliest flowering rose in Britain.  Delightful small single soft yellow flowers on thin arching branches. The foliage exudes the distinct smell of incense.  A shrub of medium size.  1910. (SP) 6 x 6’.

Book  (1981)  Page(s) 253.  
 
R. primula Bouleng. Upright shrub, 2m./6.6 ft. high, stems slender, initially red-brown; prickles stout, with flattened base, in pairs at the nodes; leaves small, 3-8 cm./1.2-3.2 in. long; young leaves aromatic; leaflets 7-13, elliptic, 8-12 mm./0.3-0.5 in, long, doubly serrate and glandular beneath and at the margin; stipules narrow, glandular, auricles filiform; flowers solitary, flat, bright yellow, 3 cm./1.2 in. across, scented, May; petals obcordate; pedicels short, bald, fruits globose to turbinate, brown-red like the pedicel, 12-15 mm./0.5-0.6 in. across. 2n=14. Turkestan to N. China. 1910. Always confused with R. ecae, but well-distinguished by its paler flowers and red-brown fruits.

Magazine  (1979)  Page(s) 13. ol 1, No. 3.  
 
David Ruston. The First Roses of Spring.
By the time the Banksias are in flower, we can usually expect flowers on R. ecae - a charmng twiggy shrub that smothers itself with bright gold single flowers of great appeal.

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.

Book  (1975)  Page(s) 27.  
 
R. primula, the so-called 'Tien Shan Rose' in the USA and the 'Incense Rose' in Britain, comes from Turkestan and northern China. From 1891 to 1936 it was, according to Shepherd, confused with R. ecae. It was introduced into Europe in 1910 where it was also known as the Incense Rose' because of the rich aroma from the young reddish-brown foliage which is particularly noticeable on damp days (and when crushed). The leaves may have as many as fifteen leaflets and the flowers, opening usually in mid May, are very much like those of the primrose but fade to white as they grow older. Small reddish heps follow: they are not very conspicuous.

Book  (1902)  Page(s) 150.  
 
Race des Rosiers Pimprenelle
5609. Ecæ... (W. Paul)... jaune pâle.