According to Pichersky, the scent of those cherry blossoms that drew crowds to the Tidal Basin this month includes notes of almond-conjuring benzaldehyde; rose-smelling phenylacetaldehyde; some 2-phenylethanol; sweet and spicy benzyl alcohol; and probably touches of honey-smelling ethyl phenylacetate and linalool, a hint of citrus that reminds Pichersky of the orange groves in Israel where he grew up.
— That's Eran Pichersky, a professor of molecular, cellular and development biology at the University of Michigan. Quoted in Dinosaur-era plants learned the value of scent and sensibility at the Washington Post.
Those notes sound wonderful. Why don’t any of the so-called “cherry blossom” fragrances (i.e. L’Occitane, BBW, Guerlain) smell like this instead of cherry syrup? Really interesting article BTW.
I don’t think (?) they distill real cherry blossoms, not that distilled essences usually smell like the natural flower (they often don’t). But most cherry blossom scents I’ve smelled smell mostly like cherries, the fruit.
Yes, they do sound like they’d make for a fantastic fragrance. I have a Japanese cherry tree and the blossoms, while quite beautiful, don’t smell like *anything*, so I always thought the cherry blossom inspired frags were simply interpretations of how a cherry blossom *might* smell.
Most cherry blossom trees in the US are grafted hybrids w/ little or no smell, but real Japanese cherry trees are scented.
ahhh….gentle wafting phenylacetaldehyde and 2-phenylethanol really takes back to my childhood as well……sigh 😉
Exactly.
Gently wafting phenylacetic acid takes me back to my salad days as a graduate student, when I lived next door to a meth cook (which is why I was never too crazy about Miel du Bois).
LOL! Yeah, that would do it.