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They also smell like someone took a rotting fish, dunked it in sewage and decided to roast it in the sun for a few days. They're everywhere where I live, and i
by flutas 3y ago
They also smell like someone took a rotting fish, dunked it in sewage and decided to roast it in the sun for a few days.
They're everywhere where I live, and it's so bad.
- QuercusMax 3y agoWe had one in front of our house at one point, and the first year it bloomed we thought there was a dead animal under the house. Some people say they smell like bleach and/or semen as well. I'd rather have Durian than Bradford pear.
- dvirsky 3y agoThese are the same trees known as Cum Trees, right? My neighbors have a couple, I didn't know these before moving to the US, and the first time I smelled them was... something.
- LambdaComplex 3y agoThey sure are
- neilv 3y agoAt least one street here got lined with those. A witty lesbian friend I was walking with identified the scent immediately, so at least the trees were good for some jokes.
- exe34 3y agoI don't think wit is how she identified it.
- akira2501 3y agoI thought that was the Linden tree.[0] [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m-8l3V38Ps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m-8l3V38Ps
- FredPret 3y agoAlways the first thing that come to mind when smelly trees "come up"
- lo_zamoyski 3y agoLinden trees have a unique scent, but I never thought it was repulsive or even remotely associated with the kinds of things people associate it with.
- davemp 3y agoThat reminds me of when I asked an arborist why the tree they were taking down was called a “Piss Oak”. They said wait until we drop it and you won’t have to ask. Sure enough the entire area smelled like urine for a couple hrs after they felled the tree.
- Loughla 3y agoDo you mean Piss Elm? I've never heard of an oak with that quality.
- davemp 3y agoI believe the polite common name is “Pin Oak” [1] a fast growing, short lived, and relatively red oak. Supposedly the smell comes from a bacterial infection that afflicts most of the Pin Oak population. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_palustris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_palustris
- TeMPOraL 3y agoI've never been very fond of nature to begin with[0], but I never imagined becoming disgusted by trees. That's until seeing some four different tree species mentioned in this thread, whose common characteristic seems to be the aura of shite and decay that takes years or decades to break through people's desperate need to pretend that since it is nature and handles well, it must be good. -- [0] - Specifically at human/humane, live in and breathe in and admire it scale. I'm very fond of nature at population scale, and at molecular scale, both of which present interesting puzzles and applications.
- datadrivenangel 3y agoThere's a reason people tend to burn down rain forests. Well, two reasons: money from the cleared land, and rain forests tend to be unpleasant reserves of biodiversity with all sorts of nasty plants and flying insects that want to lay eggs under your skin.
- BeFlatXIII 3y agoPiperidine Trees, if you spent too much time in an undergrad chem lab.
- silisili 3y agoMy high school had a bunch of these. All the kids called them CumDrop trees, for good reason.
- pvaldes 3y agoCommon Pear trees have also this fish smell. Everything pollinated by flies has an offensive smell in one or other way. This is bad but can be desirable at the same time (no wasps or bees in the narrow streets).
- swalling 3y agoThe other one that smells horrible are female gingko trees. The fruits smell like rancid butter or garbage. These days you can really only buy the male ones but older plantings are awful. https://www.purdue.edu/fnr/extension/ginkgo-stinkgo-are-boys-better-than-girls/ https://www.purdue.edu/fnr/extension/ginkgo-stinkgo-are-boys...
- scns 3y agoWe have a street lined with those. To me it smells like vomit.
- TheHypnotist 3y agoI have one in my yard and it doesn't smell at all. It also doesn't produce fruit.