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Why Roses Smell Nice
- whyenot 3y agoYour rose smells nice because it was bred to smell nice by human breeders. All the different varieties of cultivated roses that we have today are the product of hybridizing and selective breeding (“artificial selection”) of twelve or so wild rose species; a process that has continued over hundreds if not thousands of years. While not a hard and fast rule, most plant species with strongly scented flowers usually are white (jasmine, gardenia, etc.) and pollinated by nocturnal animals like moths and bats. (A great counter-example is corpse flowers, which use scent to attract a completely different guild of pollinators).
- bequanna 3y agoWhere I live roses grow wild and always have. They smell as good as cultivated roses.
- lovemenot 3y agoDo you believe these "wild" roses have never cross-fertilised with cultivated varieties?
- bequanna 3y agoSeems unlikely. We are in a very rural area with only a couple homes per square mile. They typically line the roads where the grass is short and are referenced by settlers when they first came to the area in the 1860s
- Clamchop 3y agoSo-called white flowers are in a bit of their own category, as perfume goes. A _white floral_ is conventionally the flowers you named (I'd add tuberose and orange blossom as commercially important) and have startlingly similar scent profiles. Importantly, they all contain a lot of indoles, which is also in feces so they're sometimes described as fecal or dirty, and has something to do with why they are such conspicuous odors. As a perfume for wearing, they go through pronounced trend cycles. There are many others of interest. Roses of course but also violet, lavender, lilac, lily, hyacinth, osmanthus, mimosa, marigold, chrysanthemum, chamomile, geranium, carnation. You might count iris, but moreso the tuber than the flower.
- JoeAltmaier 3y agoThis is all about chemistry and genetics. But nothing on 'why roses smell nice'. It's really a puzzle. Why on earth should Homo Sapiens consider a rose's smell to be 'nice'? Dogs like roses' smell about the same as shit. They don't give a damn. Further, why are rainbows pretty? Why is a waterfall inspiring? And on and on. You have to have some kind of special model to explain this, I think. Something beyond simple reproductive survival. But I don't know what. Anyway, interesting that we all smell slightly differently! So indeed qualia is a bigger issue than we may have thought.
- throwaway462910 3y agoI've seen the argument before that humans find flowers pretty because they indicate fertile land, where there are flowers there will be animals, etc. Impossible to really know, I suppose.
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- yen223 3y agoAnyone who's done any gardening would find that fertilizer - both natural and otherwise - do not smell pleasant.
- yunohn 3y agoFertile land exists naturally without the manual addition of manure fertiliser.
- JoeAltmaier 3y ago...and smells much the same!
- melagonster 3y agoour monkey brain this mean fruits later, maybe.
- jcims 3y agoI find it extremely difficult to reliably find roses for sale that actually smell like anything at all.
- eclipticplane 3y agoMost home garden friendly roses are bred for disease resistance, climate, pest resistance, and flower production. Scent isn't in there. I have a 'Honey Perfume' that smells nice, but most of the other varieties I have only have very faint scents.
- aziaziazi 3y agoHere’s 206 roses trees varieties ready to order [0]. GF is a lot into flowers and got a lot of stuff from this store, highly recommend them for any plant, great quality and care. Europe only I guess. [0] https://www.promessedefleurs.com/rosiers/rosiers-parfumes.html https://www.promessedefleurs.com/rosiers/rosiers-parfumes.ht...
- bsder 3y agoI don't see any varietal in there that I can't get from any other store that also doesn't have any scent.
- aziaziazi 3y agoI don’t doubt you’re more knowledgeable than me but if you can’t smell ”any sent” from 200+ “fragrant roses” varieties maybe the problem is to look elsewhere ? Maybe your odorat or your expectations ? I do smell perfume from certain roses trees as well as does my GF and the roses gardener in this beautiful place [0]. Don’t think smelling roses perfume is a rare condition. Also you probably already know that food additives and ambiance perfumes smells roses like a banana candy taste banana. I wish you success in your search. [0] https://albert-kahn.hauts-de-seine.fr/en/collections/presentation/boulogne-gardens/the-art-of-the-garden-in-boulogne https://albert-kahn.hauts-de-seine.fr/en/collections/present...
- 3y ago
- bigbillheck 3y agoIf they didn't smell nice we wouldn't have domesticated them and planted them all over.
- operatingthetan 3y agoLots of flowers that don't smell like much get planted all over the place.
- eichin 3y agoOr worse, Bradford Pears - popular ornamental trees with pretty flowers for public roads, and they smell offensive
- firatsarlar 3y agoThey are markers on the map. It is like "Can you drink a river ?"
- jiggawatts 3y agoI once stayed at a hotel next to one of the largest rose gardens in the southern hemisphere, with hundreds of varietals. I walked through smelling every unique type of rose flower and I was surprised to learn that the vast majority do not smell like “roses”! A rough estimate was that half smell bad or not at all, most of the rest smell like lemons, and a few percent only have the prototypical rose smell.