Rosa damascena Mill., an important species as a source of rose oil, is one of the oldest rose species grown in Iran. The large cultivation area of Damask rose in Iran represents a potentially rich source of genetic resources for the species. To explore the diversity, 41 Damask rose genotypes from various cultivation areas of Iran and one from Bulgaria were evaluated with 37 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and characterized for 10 morphological traits and their ploidy levels. A total of 224 bands were scored from 37 SSR primer pairs. UPGMA cluster analysis based on Dice genetic similarity revealed 11 distinct groups for SSR and only three for the morphological data. Although most studied Damask roses were tetraploid, one triploid and two hexaploid genotypes were also found. The discriminating power of the SSR data was similar to previously reported data from RAPDs. The high level of molecular diversity revealed in this Iranian collection of R. damascena suggests that Iran is the probable center of diversity for Damask rose

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