Its parentage includes Rosa × damascena, but it may be a complex hybrid; its exact hereditary history is not well documented or fully investigated,[1] but it now appears that this is not the "hundred-leaved" (centifolia) rose mentioned by Theophrastus and Pliny: "no unmistakable reference can be traced earlier than about 1580".

[2] The original plant was sterile, but a sport with single flowers appeared in 1769, from which various cultivars known as centifolia roses were developed, many of which are further hybrids.

In 1783 the French artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun painted a famous portrait of Marie Antoinette holding a pink centifolia rose.

Individual plants are shrubby in appearance, growing to 1.5–2 m tall, with long drooping canes and greyish green pinnate leaves with 5–7 leaflets.

The flowers are round and globular, with numerous thin overlapping petals that are highly scented; they are usually pink, less often white to dark red-purple.