Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating natural disasters in US history, claimed around 1836 lives and displaced millions of people. In its aftermath, an unexpected symbol of survival emerged on the Gulf Coast: a climbing rose that managed to bloom amid the destruction.
When Peggy Martin, a resident of Phenix, Louisiana, returned to find her home submerged after the storm, she discovered that the rose growing by her shed had survived. Charles Shi, horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, later identified the flower as resembling old climbing roses with possible genetic ties to Rosa banksiae, a species introduced from China in the nineteenth century.
Shi points to traits that likely contributed to its survival: inherent resilience, efficient metabolism under low oxygen conditions, tolerance to saline stress, and rapid regenerative ability. According to Matt Rowe of the New Orleans Army Corps of Engineers, the rose may have been submerged for anywhere between two weeks and a month. For Martin, the plant carried a personal message: "Deep down, I believe my parents wanted to leave me something," she told CNN.
News of the rose's survival reached Dr William C. Welch of Texas A and M University, who encouraged its propagation and worked with gardeners to reestablish it. The plant, now known as the Peggy Martin rose, gained wide popularity as a living symbol of resilience. Today, nearly twenty years later, it is found in countless gardens, featured in gardening books, and even celebrated in a children's story.
Its exact numbers are difficult to estimate, but Greg Grant, horticulturist in Smith County, suggests there may now be anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of Peggy Martin roses, all propagated from cuttings of the original plant that survived Katrina.
Source: lagaceta.com.ar
