rose of Jerichon.

Etymology: < rose n.¹ + of prep. + Jericho, the name of a town of ancient Palestine (see Jericho n.), originally after post-classical Latin rosa de Jericho (a1375 in the source translated in quot. c1450 at sense 1a). With sense 2 compare post-classical Latin tu rosa purpurea in Jericho ‘thou purple rose in Jericho’ in a prayer to the Virgin Mary (a1072 in St. Peter Damian Carmina Sacra et Preces xlix ( Patrologia Latina 145 (1853) 935C)).In both senses 1 and 2 ultimately after the verse of the Vulgate (Ecclesiasticus 24:18) cited below in quot. OE and translated in quot. a1382. Latin plantatio rosae ‘rose plant’ (compare Hellenistic Greek ϕυτὰ ρόδου (Septuagint)) in this verse is usually understood in medieval exegesis as referring literally to the rose (rose n.¹ 2) and allegorically to the Virgin Mary (compare rose n.¹ 5; for a different allegorical interpretation see quot. a1425).OE (Northumbrian) Liturgical Texts (Durham Ritual) in A. H. Thompson & U. Lindelöf Rituale Ecclesiae Dunelmensis (1927) 65 Quasi palma exalta [read exaltata] sum in cades et quasi plantatio rosæ in hiericho : suælce pælm' ahefen am on cad' & suoelce plontung rosæs in hierich. ▸ a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Ecclus. xxiv. 18 As a palm I am enhauncid in Cades, and as the plaunting of a rose [a1425 L.V. of roose] in Jericho [L. et quasi plantatio rosae in Jericho].a1425 J. Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1869) I. 108 Þis smelle is Crist, clepid plantinge of rose in Jerico. The identity of the plant denoted by the Hebrew source is uncertain and disputed; it was probably not Anastatica hierochuntica (see sense 1a), which is apparently not found in the vicinity of Jericho, although later popularly identified as such. The legend mentioned in quot. c1450 at sense 1a seems to be an attempt to explain this identification by means of the known association of the biblical verse with the Virgin Mary.