4 ms·
These 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
by dvirsky 3y ago
These 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 2y agoPiperidine Trees, if you spent too much time in an undergrad chem lab.