Cherokee rose

American  

noun

1. the fragrant white rose of a prickly, climbing shrub, Rosa laevigata, originally from China and naturalized in the southern U.S.: the state flower of Georgia.

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Cherokee rose British  

noun

1. an evergreen climbing Chinese rose, Rosa laevigata, that now grows wild in the southern US, having large white fragrant flowers

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Etymology

Origin of Cherokee rose

An Americanism dating back to 1815–25

Example Sentences

The American Beauty is the flower of the District of Columbia, Georgia has the white Cherokee rose, Iowa the wild rose, and New York an unspecified variety of rose.

From Time Magazine Archive

And one knew there was Cherokee rose to follow, that the dogwood was in white, and the year's new mintage of gold dandelions was being coined in the fresh grass.

From Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man by Oemler, Marie Conway

The Cherokee rose, single-leafed, now so rare with us, seems here to have found a congenial foreign home.

From Due South or Cuba Past and Present by Ballou, Maturin Murray

The battery might have been a Cherokee rose.

From A Cathedral Singer by Allen, James Lane

There was pointed out to us a specimen of the frangipanni, a tall and nearly leafless plant bearing a milk-white flower, and resembling the tuberose in fragrance, but in form much like our Cherokee rose.

From Due South or Cuba Past and Present by Ballou, Maturin Murray