Article (magazine)  (Sep 2019)  Page(s) 24-25.  Includes photo(s).
 
Our favourite species rose, probably the only tropical species in the world, is Rosa clinophylla, once found in the most exotic locations in India and Bangladesh, particularly the “jheels” or lakes found throughout the Bengal area, as well as on the banks of forest streams of central India, on the isolated mountain of Mount Abu, in the Rajasthan desert of western India, and in southern India too. The discovery of this amazing species was made in the mid 1800s by a Mr. Rose, the aptly-named Superintendent of Post Offices whose jurisdiction was all of Bengal. His means of travel during the flood season was by boat on rivers and lakes, and once, while doing so, he found this rose rising out of the water. Specimens sent to François Crépin, the taxonomist in Belgium, were identified as Rosa involucrata, later renamed Rosa clinophylla. We must mention that, in the 1980s, when we searched for this rose to begin our hybridization program to create warm climate roses, we found only one plant in cultivation in Bengal, a region where in earlier years it was said to flourish, growing wild and in plenty.

Article (misc)  (Jun 2007)  
 
In many ways R. clinophylla is one of the most distinctive of wild roses. First of all it is perhaps the only tropical wild rose, and found in India in places as far apart as the north-eastern states like Manipur and in the Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam;  near Ranchi in  the new Jharkhand State  ( earlier it was in Bihar State); in  the Simplipal Wildlife Sanctuary in Orissa State; on the Eastern Ghat mountains in the border areas between Andhra Pradesh and Orissa states, as well as in Coorg area of  Karnataka State in south India.
Sir George Watt has commented on how typically the species appears in fairly large numbers in restricted localities, and thereafter is nowhere to be seen for hundreds of kilometers, where conditions are apparently quite similar, and then it appears again quite suddenly.
The species is an upright semi-climbing shrub, reaching 4-5 meters with five-petalled white flowers and prominent golden anthers with the distinctive fragrance of acetone—nail polish remover!
Another unusual feature of this species is the fact that it is semi-aquatic and favors locations like the islands in the River Ganges, which are submerged under the flood waters for six months in the year, leaving only the tops of the plants visible, or the banks of streams. ....
There is an interesting account of the discovery of this rose by an Englishman, appropriately named Mr. Rose, who was Superintendent of Post Offices in British India, and  who, while traveling in the course of his official duties, by boat, during the flood season, saw a rose coming out of the water. He collected the flower and some seeds, which later were identified as R.clinophylla.
We have two clones of this rose, one collected by my friend Mr. Narender Singh of Ranchi. He was on a hunting trip and had camped by a stream’s edge and early the next morning, just as the sun was rising, he saw to his amazement, white roses at the water’s edge.
The other form is the Bengal form, originally collected by the well known Bengal horticulturist, Mr. Shivaprasad Bannerjee. This was from an island on the River Padma which branches off from the River Ganges, near Murshidabad in West Bengal.
This species was carefully preserved by the late Dr. N.C. Sen and, at that time, was probably the only plant in cultivation.
The third form, also called R. lyelli, is found in the lower Himalayas around Kumaon, in Nepal, and in Mount Abu, a hill station at about 1200 meters in Rajasthan State, in western India....
It differs from the eastern Indian forms in bearing flowers in corymbs, rather than singly....
From the taxonomic point of view, Ghora and Panigrahi indicate that apart from the type species, R. clinophylla is found in 2 other  forms –R. clinophylla var. glabra and R. clinophylla var. parvifolia, where the leaflets are glabrous on both sides unlike the typical form where the leaflets are tomentose, woolly beneath. According to this authority, var. glabra has flower up to 5.5 cms. across, whereas in the var. parvifolia the flowers are much smaller – 2 cms , and the leaflets, as can be imagined, also smaller. The flowers of the typical R. clinophylla are in between in size.
A  word on the hips of R. clinophylla. These are round and woolly (tomentose) outside, and quite light in weight, confirming that the distribution of these is through water, which correspond to the typical flood plain habitat.
The narrow, shining evergreen foliage as well as the involucres which surround the buds are a feature of R. clinophylla. The specie is closely related to R. bracteata.

Magazine  (1999)  Page(s) 90. Vol 93, part 3.  Includes photo(s).
 
Helga Brichet. Tropical Rose Breeding.
....This has led some taxonomists to separate it into two species - R. clinophylla proper (with two varieties parvifolia and glabra) and R. lyellii. The major differences are in the thorns and the fact that usually the former produces individual flowers while the latter displays flowers in corymbs.

Generally speaking R. clinophylla glabra is found....low-lying plains of Bengal. ....the flooding of the plains.....this rose loses its leaves at the moment when all other plants in the area renew their luxuriant foliage.

R. clinophylla parviflora ultimately proved to be the most interesting for future breeding projects. This variety is found near Ranchi in the state of Bahar where there is a dry heat in the summer.

Photo R. clinophylla parviflora

Book  (May 1998)  Page(s) 24, 25.  Includes photo(s).
 
Page 24: Rosa clinophylla [Thory] ('Droopy-leaved Rose') Description... petals 5, white, slightly yellow at the base... It is cultivated in Boursault's garden, from which our painting was made. It flowers in July and needs to spend the winter in the conservatory where it retains its leaves...
Page 25: [Illustration]

Book  (Apr 1993)  Page(s) 673.  
 
R. involucrata Roxburgh ex Lindley see R. clinophylla Thory

Book  (1988)  Page(s) 123.  
 
R. clinophylla from the Calcutta Botanic Garden in 1816, is, according to Roy E. Shepherd (History of the Rose, New York, 1954), a white rose closely resembling R. bracteata, found in marshy areas of India, but is not at present in cultivation in Britain.

Book  (1981)  Page(s) 58-59.  
 
[included in discussion of Rosa bracteata]
Rosa clinophylla Thory
Closely allied to R. bracteata, with the same laciniate bracts and stipules and tomentose fruits, but the prickles not hooked, the leaflets narrower, acute, often downy beneath. It is native to India...It is found by riversides and other wet places. Further east it occurs in Burma, where Kingdon-Ward found it on the Irrawaddy...growing as a bush 10 to 15 ft high among rocks submerged for three months...It also occurs in Laos and possibly in S.E. China.
R. clinophylla was first collected in Nepal...around 1803, and was described and named by Roxburgh from specimens sent by him to the Calcutta Botanic Garden. But by the time Lindley had published Roxburgh's name R. involucrata (1820), the species had been described by Thory...in the first volume of Redouté's Les Roses....under the name R. clinophylla.

Book  (1936)  Page(s) 159, 161.  
 
p. 159: Clenophylla (multiflora) ? ? ; white, small, growth 8/10, climbing habit

p. 161: Clinophylla duplex (Bracteata) ? ? ; white to soft pink, large, lightly filled, cupped, growth 7/10.

Website/Catalog  (1923)  Page(s) 50.  
 
Rosa Clinophylla (Thory, 1773). White with some pink. Syn.: Rosa involucrata (Roxb, 1120). China-import.

Book  (1874)  Page(s) 472.  
 

Rosa involucrata. A bramble-like plant, with small, pale yellow-green, pretty foliage; bears in February a profusion of white flowers like those of the Dog Rose, quite single.