Species
+

Rosa chinensis Jacq.

Bengal rose, China Rose, China rose, Chinese rose

Climate known 30 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Rosa chinensis, known commonly as the China rose, Chinese rose, or Bengal rose, is a member of the genus Rosa native to Southwest China in Guizhou, Hubei, and Sichuan Provinces. The first publication of Rosa chinensis was in 1768 by Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin in Observationum Botanicarum, 3, p. 7 & plate 55.

Text from Wikipedia, “Rosa chinensis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
China South-Central, China North-Central
Wild records
335 in range· 165 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1142mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Jul 215 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–32DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Rosa, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1142 mm a year, wettest July at 215 mm, driest December at 18 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 32 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Rosa bengalensis Pers.; Rosa bengalensis subsp. chinensis (Jacq.) Pers.; Rosa bengalensis subsp. odorata Wallr.; Rosa bengalensis subsp. odoratissima Wallr.; Rosa bengalensis var. chinensis Pers. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Rosa, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (826 mm of 1142 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.9 °C against a yearly mean of 16.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1142 mm a year, wettest July at 215 mm, driest December at 18 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1142 mm a year at the habitat, 826 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 215 mm, driest December at 18 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 649 mm to 1843 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 32 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 32 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -4.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.5 °C, the absolute minimum -9.7 °C, about 33 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -6.6 °C to 6.7 °C), warmest day 29.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 8 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1142 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 298 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -9.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost31.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-9.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 16–32RH 59–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 298 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C8 / 3–1510 / 6–1715 / 10–2121 / 16–2525 / 20–2828 / 22–3130 / 23–3229 / 22–3125 / 20–2920 / 16–2615 / 11–2110 / 5–16
Night °C1 / -7–73 / -4–96 / 0–1211 / 6–1616 / 11–2020 / 15–2322 / 16–2521 / 15–2418 / 13–2213 / 8–178 / 1–123 / -4–7
Rain mm21 / 6–6927 / 9–10447 / 18–15982 / 26–215138 / 58–268189 / 79–304215 / 152–304170 / 128–268114 / 68–18378 / 35–11243 / 15–7018 / 5–41
DLI17 / 13–2419 / 14–3024 / 17–3529 / 21–3831 / 25–3930 / 26–3832 / 29–3531 / 27–3326 / 20–2922 / 14–2618 / 13–2316 / 12–21
RH %60 / 52–6661 / 51–6660 / 51–6760 / 51–6661 / 54–6663 / 55–6864 / 61–6964 / 61–6862 / 59–6761 / 55–6760 / 54–6559 / 53–65

Each figure is the median across the 298 grid cells holding the 333 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1266:5726 (26.675, 106.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 298 distinct grid cells holding the 333 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1266:5726 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 26.50_106.250, lapse-corrected -47 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1263 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, China North-Central· introduced: Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Inner Mongolia, Korea, Assam, India, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Laos, Vietnam, Queensland, Western Australia, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Alabama, Guatemala
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker29.496, 103.399 · in the densest population, 206 records (61% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 335 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 165 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 101 km away. 442 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 335 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Rosa chinensisRosa chinensisRosa chinensisRosa chinensisRosa chinensisRosa chinensisRosa chinensisRosa chinensis

Photographs: (c) Urgamal Magsar, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Rosa chinensis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The Rosa genome provides new insights into the domestication of modern roses
Olivier Raymond, Jérôme Gouzy, Jérémy Just, Hélène Badouin (2018) · Nature Genetics
A high-quality genome sequence of Rosa chinensis to elucidate ornamental traits
Laurence Hibrand Saint-Oyant, Tom Ruttink, Latifa Hamama, Ilya Kirov (2018) · Nature Plants
Phenolic Antioxidants (Hydrolyzable Tannins, Flavonols, and Anthocyanins) Identified by LC-ESI-MS and MALDI-QIT-TOF MS from Rosa chinensis Flowers
Yi‐Zhong Cai, Jie Xing, Mei Sun, Zhaoqi Zhan (2005) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Performance of Kerria japonica and Rosa chinensis flower dyes as sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells
K.V. Hemalatha, S. N. Karthick, C. Justin Raj, Na-Yeong Hong (2012) · Spectrochimica Acta Part A Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant Capacities of 10 Common Edible Flowers from China
Lina Xiong, Jiajia Yang, Yirong Jiang, Baiyi Lu (2014) · Journal of Food Science
Scent evolution in Chinese roses
Gabriel Scalliet, Florence Piola, Christophe J. Douady, S. Réty (2008) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Comparative RNA-seq analysis of transcriptome dynamics during petal development in Rosa chinensis
Yu Han, Huihua Wan, Tangren Cheng, Jia Wang (2017) · Scientific Reports
Mechanisms of salt stress tolerance in two rose rootstocks: Rosa chinensis ‘Major’ and R. rubiginosa
Paul K. Wahome, H. H. Jesch, I. Grittner (2001) · Scientia Horticulturae
Trifluralin-mediated polyploidization of Rosa chinensis minima (Sims) Voss seedlings
David C. Zlesak, Christian A. Thill, Neil O. Anderson (2005) · Euphytica

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Rosa 15 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 149 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.