Yunnan rose named after uncle 'who looks like a flower'

A new Chinese rose variety cultivated by the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences has been named "Baohua Chinese Rose" after the second maternal uncle of a Chinese netizen, according to Guangming Daily.

Recently, the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences held an online naming contest for a newly-cultivated variety of Chinese rose featuring white petals with pinkish-purple edges, with names such as Jinghong, Water Sleeves and Silk proposed in the initial stages.

However, one comment posted by a netizen from Shandong province stood out: "Name it 'Liu Baohua Chinese Rose' because my second maternal uncle is named Liu Baohua."

The Yunnan academy responded, "We appreciate your feelings for your second maternal uncle, but isn't it a bit of a stretch to use him as a flower name?"

The netizen replied, "Not really, it's not a stretch. He looks like a flower."

The reply garnered a wave of support from other netizens, resulting in "Liu Baohua Chinese Rose" taking a commanding lead in the final voting stage, with Cai Yanfei, a research fellow at the flower research institute of the Yunnan academy, confirming the name to xinhuanet.

The "Baohua Chinese rose", in seedling, fresh cut and preserved form, is expected to be available on the market as early as August, according to Cai.