All of our native ponderosa in the western Dakotas and eastern MT and Wyo smell like vanilla. When I get to a stand on a warm day, I flake off a few bark pieces, close my eyes, and inhale, it is one of those scents which becomes locked into your memory. Greg.
On Sep 10, 10:52 pm, "Edward Frank" <[email protected]> wrote: > WNTS, ENTS, > > There are a number of professions and hobbyists that make a living trying to > describe the aromas of various things. There are wine connoisseurs who > describe the aroma of wine as well as its taste. There are perfume makers > that focus on smells. I wonder how these people would describe the different > odors of different species of trees? Would there be any consensus on the > descriptions? For that matter it might be interesting to take a survey of > just average people to say ten different species of trees. Ask each to > describe the odor of the tree and write it down without telling anyone else > what they wrote. Then at the end the results could be compared. I wonder if > there could be some way to give them a quick shot of training their olfactory > senses to get better results. Maybe a panel of standard smells - say > vanilla, coffee, chocolate, rose petals, turpentine, etc could be used as > training or a standard. Any Ideas anyone? > > > Ponderosa Pines: Rugged Trees With A Sweet Smell > > by Daniel Kraker > > >http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?verified=true&storyId=11... > > > ...In Arizona's Coconino National Forest, tourists take hiking tours > > through the trees. You don't have to look hard for them — they're > > everywhere. As prolific as Ponderosas are, there's still a lot that > > scientists don't know about them. For example, they change color as they > > get older. And they begin to smell a bit strange, too. "Early lumbermen who > > came out here thought they were two different species," says Steve Hirst of > > the U.S. Forest Service, who leads tours through the area. The trees with > > black bark were called black jack pine; those with yellow bark were called > > yellow pine. But they're the same tree — the yellow ones are just older. > > When the tree reaches 110 to 120 years old (a mere teenager for a Ponderosa > > pine), it begins to shed its black bark and reveal an inner bark of yellow. > > ...There's something else that begins to happen to the tree in the > > yellowbelly phase. Stick your nose into a crevice of the bark and take a > > big sniff. It may smell like butterscotch or vanilla. The next person who > > smells it may insist it's more like cinnamon, or even coconut. Scientists > > don't know why a closely sniffed Ponderosa smells like baking cookies. > > > Edward Frank > > Ed Frank > > “To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the > same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, > and which shall never be seen again” - Ralph Waldo Emerson --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
