Yunnan rose honor for Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi

A new variety of rose has been named "Aung San Suu Kyi" in honor of Myanmar's State Counsellor, reports Yunnan Radio.

Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi poses for a photo with the new rose hybrid named in her honor in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan province, May 17, 2017. [Photo: ynradio.com]

The State Counsellor was in China to attend the two-day Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, and went on to attend the rose naming ceremony in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan province, as part of her talks with Yunnan Province Communist Party Secretary, Chen Hao.

Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (L) accepts a commemorative document for the new rose species named in her honor in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan province, May 17, 2017. [Photo: ynradio.com]

Aung San Suu Kyi watered the rose symbolically and accepted a commemorative document at the ceremony.

According to Yunnan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, it took local researchers four years to breed the new hybrid.

The "Aung San Suu Kyi Rose" in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan province, May 17, 2017. [Photo: ynradio.com]

Compact and upright, the rose can be cultivated as cut flowers, producing small red blooms, or planted in pots or grown in courtyards.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who's known as a stylish dresser and is often to be seen attired in traditional Burmese costume sporting a fresh flower in hair, praised the flower for its delicate shape and beautiful color, and said the rose was most suitable to adorn a headdress.

Aung San Suu Kyi also expressed her gratitude for the warm reception she had received in Yunnan, saying that she would plant the rose in her courtyard to serve as a witness to Sino-Burma friendship, which she said runs a long course from a remote source.