Ah, the rose. ‘Ere a rose lies blooming, the War of the Roses, Poet Sappho’s ‘queen of flowers’, the art, the poetry, the legends and the myths that it has inspired. The rose inspired an Empire. It was forever tied to the fall of one. Essential oils from its petals – attar - are used to create perfumes. Tomes by knowledgeable rosarians and hybridizers have been written on it, likenesses of it are found adorning antiquities, and banners bearing it have been carried onto battlefields. What is this rose?