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| - Images shared on social media in late 2024 of a so-called hybrid rose called the "midnight ember" show dramatic orange and black petals, presumably for which the flower is named.
"The Midnight Ember Rose captivates with its striking black petals edged in fiery orange, creating a dramatic and mesmerizing effect," read one Facebook post shared in August 2024.
However, there is no such hybrid rose known as the midnight ember, and the images shared in many of these posts show evidence of being digitally manipulated.
Amy Jo Detweiler, a horticulturist and professor at Oregon State University with flower expertise, told Snopes she does "not believe this is a real rose hybrid nor has it ever been."
Rather, Detweiler said, the image looks "like a product of AI."
The online AI detection tool Hive Moderation found that one image of the roses was 99.8% "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content." True Media, another online AI detection tool, found a similar image has "substantial evidence of manipulation." Those results are shown below:
(Hive/True Media Screenshots)
This manipulation is evidenced by the rose's unusual color combination of vibrant orange and black. "Additionally, the smooth gradient and texture transitions are common in digitally altered images," according to True Media.
It was unclear who may have created the images shared online.
None of the posts in question shared the rose's scientific name or the species from which it was said to have been bred.
The National Gardening Association's online database includes more than 38,000 images of 7,330 roses, yet it does not include any roses named "midnight ember."
Because the images of the roses showed signs of being digitally created, we have rated this claim as a fake.
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