What does it smell like in the garden

Our gardens are home to a colossal number of different plants, and many of them smell during flowering. There is even such a thing as a scent garden, in which plants with the most pleasant scent are collected. In the Middle Ages, special gardens were created, the paths of which were planted with fragrant plants so that when you step on them, the smell changes: mint for thyme, thyme for chamomile, that one for something else, and this, not counting the smells of flowers around the path. In one of the parks in France, there is a mixborder created from plants that smell during flowering, and even selected by color - yellow, white, blue and pink areas in total stretch for more than a kilometer. The strength of odors in different plants is different, in order to smell the lilies of the valley, even when they grow in a large group, you need to "stick your nose in them", but two or three bushes of violets remind of themselves from two or three meters. Of all that I personally know suitable for the middle lane, the most fragrant plant is the Korean Abelia. Its nondescript flowers smell like fragrant tobacco. In hot weather, the breeze sometimes carries this smell almost 300 meters away.

Some plants have completely unexpected smells: in addition to the carnations themselves, golden currants smell like a carnation, and it is strong, the smell is felt a few meters from the bush. The same smell, but not so strong, have the flowers of the hybrid podbelo, appearing immediately after the snow melts. Lily of the valley, except, of course, of the lily of the valley itself, smells like flowers of actinidia kolomikta, especially for men. Tea roses, as the name suggests, smell like tea, but Rhodiola has a pink rose, or rather a rosehip, smells like a cut rhizome. So this plant got its name not for its color, its flowers are yellowish, but for its smell.

Lemons smell like lemon balm leaves, catnip, one of the types of wormwood, one of the varieties of thyme (creeping thyme), Moldavian snakehead and lemon sorghum. Catnip, which is also called lemon, very often does not live up to its name. When propagated by seeds, it produces a wide variety of chemical forms that smell differently. And the lemon scent is the rarest of them all. More often among catnip seedlings there are plants that smell of kerosene, or even mushroom soup! The smells of creeping thyme, or thyme, are also varied. Back in my student years, during my practice in Pyatigorsk on the slope of Mashuk Mountain, I counted 7 variants of the smell on 1 square meter. Thyme can have a sweet smell, familiar to everyone from childhood on the cough medicine "Pertussin", it can smell like pure thymol - the smell of a dentist's office, where thymol is used to disinfect the tooth cavity before filling, and maybe even the smell of allspice - such a thyme I met in Alma-Ata nature reserve. Most often, there are various combinations of thymol odors, often almost kerosene.

The smell of Siberian catnip leaves is very interesting. It resembles the smell of buckwheat honey.

Two very similar plants of the Compositae family - balsamic tansy (the famous Gogol canoper) and balsamic yarrow - differ not only in inflorescences, but also in smell. The subtle aroma of canuper is completely different from the pungent smell of medical camphor that balsamic yarrow possesses.

Methyl salicylate gives the plants the medicinal smell of the well-known rubbing against joint pains. It is found in many plants familiar to us, in particular, in the meadowsweet, which grows in damp places. All parts of the plant smell like methyl salicylate, it even makes its way into the honey aroma of inflorescences. But the strongest aroma of this compound has a lily birch, a beautiful tree from North America. The local population uses its bark instead of aspirin.

Sometimes the same plant has a complex smell, in which the most unexpected "notes" are felt. The same meadowsweet, when rubbed, at first clearly smells of fresh cucumber, and then the smell of methyl salicylate "breaks through".

There are also plants, different parts of which smell differently. So, from a citrus tree of bergamot, three essential oils are obtained. Bergamot oil, familiar to everyone by the smell of Earl Gray tea, is obtained from the fruit. Petite grain with a strong fresh scent comes from the leaves, and the sweetest neroli aroma comes from the flowers.

Funny, but cucumber smell is peculiar to more than one cucumber. The well-known cucumber grass or borago, its closest relative, comfrey, the already mentioned meadowsweet and a beautiful plant of the Rosaceae family, the blackhead or small burnet, smell the same way. It smells like cucumber and greens of common burnet. But the flowers of the burnet are pollinated by flies. Here, everything is adapted to attract them - and the appearance, and the color resembling clotted blood, and the smell of stale meat. Not all plants have a pleasant smell from our, human, point of view, especially those that are pollinated by flies. Blooming pears and mountain ash, as well as an interesting plant - Manchurian Kirkazon, smell of rotten meat. It has a unique mechanism for pollination of saxophone-shaped flowers. At the narrowing in the pharynx of the flower, sharp hairs directed downward are located. The stamens are located at the top of the peduncle. An insect caught in a flower cannot get out of it until the anthers mature. The pollen poured out of them accumulates at the “bottom” of the flower, completely enveloping the fly. After that, the hairs die off and the fly “breaded” like a cutlet goes to the next flower. To attract flies, the flowers of the Manchurian Kirkazon are colored "meat", but in the Large-leaved Kirkazon they are yellow and smell like freshly caught fish or river water.

The flowers of most types of hawthorns smell like fish, but already rotten, so they should not be planted under windows. Only double pink hawthorns are odorless, all the others differ only in the intensity of the "aroma". Barberry flowers have an unpleasant smell. It resembles the smell of a musty doormat, or rotten potatoes. Small barberries smell faintly, but a large bush of common barberries frankly stinks. The nectar of the barberry lies almost openly, the flies have plenty of space, therefore the smell is designed to attract them as the main pollinators.

But the most unpleasant smell has a beautiful ornamental plant black cohosh. During the flowering of black cohosh, which has now become fashionable among flower growers, you cannot stand near the bush for a long time - it smells of fresh feces. This smell is especially strong in the room, so black cohosh should never be used in bouquets! The blooming common quince has exactly the same smell, but it is felt only if you smell the flower.

Two more plants belonging to completely different families smell very unpleasant: hemlock and black root. Both of them "smell" of mice. Blackroot on this basis is even planted to protect against mice, apparently the mice decide that the place is already taken and do not take it. But the blackroot has one drawback. As soon as the plant dries up, it completely loses its smell. And in the hemlock, this smell makes it possible to distinguish it from the numerous edible umbellates, which is very important, since the hemlock is deadly poisonous.

There are also many plants that smell of garlic, and these are not only various onions, as you might think. The smell of garlic is common in the cruciferous family. From the closest acquaintances, the field jar and the garlic smell of garlic, the last plant even got its name from the smell. The British call it garlic mustard because of the simultaneously slightly spicy and garlic taste and use it in early spring salads. The smell of the thick-housed Byzantine purse growing in our flower beds is very interesting, but it appears only in extreme heat.On cool days this plant smells "medium labiate", but if you grind the leaf in the heat, it smells strongly of melon.

As you can see, the world of plant scents is very diverse and interesting. When planting your plants, be sure to think not only about how they will look, but also about what it all smells like.