Its fame is such that the damask rose features in Shakespeare, but for Syrian farmers growing the flower that produces the heady-scented oil used to flavour Turkish delight, tragedy may await.
One of the oldest flowers in history, a staple of perfumers and known for its therapeutic properties, the damask rose is withering in the city and surrounding fields that gave it its name.
Farmer Jamal Abbas looks out over land in El-Mrah, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) northeast of the capital of a country ripped asunder by war for five years.
"The damask rose is dying," he says in the Nabek area village known for growing the 30-petalled flower, but where cultivated land has decreased by more than half.
The tradition of picking the crop has also faded as entire families have fled the fighting between regime forces and rebel groups.
War prevented access to the rose fields for a time and forced the cancellation of the annual rose festival, depriving El-Mrah of its main source of income.
Rebels were routed from the area in 2014, and on Sunday the festival was staged again, despite the production of damask roses at an all-time low.
"We went from 80 tonnes in 2010 to 20 tonnes this year because of the war, in addition to a drought," says another farmer, Hamza Bitar.
