Rosa damascena is very important for essential oil production, medicinal properties and it is also widely cultivated as a garden rose. The Rose species is mainly propagated by stem cutting. In the present study, the effect of different levels of 0, 500 and 1,000 mg l-1 (quick dip method for 20 s) of indole butyric acid (IBA) on the rooting of 12 wild genotypes (including: Kurdistan 1 to Kurdistan 12) of R. damascena was investigated. The results show that the rooting ability of R. damascena differs significantly between the twelve genotypes. The highest rooting (79.56%) and callus production (69.08%), number of roots (8.33), root fresh and dry weights (361.80 and 244.74 mg, respectively) were recorded in Kurdistan 5 genotype with 1,000 mg l-1 IBA. The maximum root length (5.84 cm) was observed in Kurdistan 5 genotype with 500 mg l-1 IBA that showed a significant difference compared to the control treatment (0.96 cm). The highest number of leaves per bud (7.33 at 500 mg l-1 IBA) and number of buds (5.00 at 1,000 mg l-1 IBA) were recorded in Kurdistan 1 genotype. The current study demonstrated that the different genotypes of R. damascena were in a difficult-toroot state, which suggests that cutting treatment with 1,000 mg l-1 IBA overcame the problem of the difficult-to-root state, and it can also enhance the rooting percentage in the studied genotypes.
