The Survival of Syria’s Damask Rose

The Survival of Syria’s Damask Rose

The blossom looks like pink lipstick on a bare face. That’s how the color of the damask rose stands out when it blooms in the middle of the desert. In Qaldoun al-Marah, often simply called al-Marah, a village of 5,000 people 43 miles northeast of Damascus, one of the world’s oldest rose varieties is harvested between mid-May and early June. The Bitar family, one of the largest pickers of the damask rose in Syria, calls it the “queen of roses.” A…