Rose facts and facts about roses, from the Random Facts shelf.
16 facts on this shelf
The French Bulldog's signature upright "bat ears" exist largely because of American breeders in the late 1800s, who pushed for bat ears over the folded "rose ears" some European breeders preferred.
A compass rose is the star-shaped design on maps and compasses that shows directions, and traditional ones mark 32 points.
Strawberries belong to the rose family.
Cherries belong to the rose family.
In Catalonia, people give books and roses on Saint George's Day, April 23.
For decades, a mysterious visitor called the "Poe Toaster" left cognac and roses at Edgar Allan Poe's grave on his birthday.
Fossil evidence shows that roses existed about 35 million years ago, long before humans.
The rose became the official national flower of the US in 1986, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
Technically, roses don't have thorns. Their sharp points are called prickles because they grow from the outer layer of the stem.
During WWII, Britain collected wild rose hips to make vitamin C syrup for children when citrus fruit was scarce.
There are about 150 species of wild roses and thousands of cultivated varieties.
A rose bush at Germany's Hildesheim Cathedral is believed to be about 1,000 years old and survived the bombing of the cathedral in WWII.
Portland, Oregon, is known as the "City of Roses" and is home to the International Rose Test Garden, the oldest public rose test garden in the US still in operation.
It takes thousands of pounds of rose petals to make a single pound of rose oil, much of which comes from Bulgaria's Rose Valley.
The Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, began in 1890.
Blue roses don't exist in nature, but scientists used genetic engineering to create a bluish rose in 2004.