Scents and odors

Lol. I better not smell those, lol. I love cilantro.

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Here are some odor descriptions for mushrooms based on the scientific name. It would not surprise me if some of them occur in other fields.
https://www.wvmssalem.org/post/odor-descriptions

This is such an interesting attempt to categorize the nearly ineffable world of mushrooms fragrance. Even grocery store mushrooms are hard to describe beyond the terms earthy And woodsy… which really isn’t a very good descriptor at all even for common button mushrooms and portobellos !

I would describe the white button mushroom I most often get from the grocery as smelling like tepid water, or cornstarch, a little sharp. nothing earthy at all to my senses. And portobello, the bigger ones, have a more sawdusty, richer smell, with less sharp and more tang. If that makes any sense.

I like the smell of skunk too. For about two minutes. It’s odd - there are some smells like that. I like the smell of gasoline for a bit, then I can’t stand it. There are others like that, but I can’t remember just now. Perhaps iNat should devise a ‘scratch and sniff’ app and make it one of the ‘evidences’ of the organism. :grinning:

None of my iNat observations are associated with a smell, but I do have some very memorable experiences with smells in nature.

My childhood on the New England coast makes me nostalgic for the smell of the seaweed lying in rows along the beach. I find it lovely.

My first encounter with Pineapple-weed: startled that it really does smell exactly like pineapple.

Tropical Rainforests course in Costa Rica: walking the trails at La Selva at night, and coming upon the heavy, sweet-musky scent of some nocturnal flower. Oddly, Chinese Privet strikes me as a much fainter version of the same smell.

Later in the same course: our instructor was explaining pollination by carrion flies by showing us Sapranthus palanga (the genus name means “rot-flower”). I turned out to be rather insensitive to this one, because I walked up and sniffed the flower that my classmates afterward said they could smell just fine from where they stood.

Exploring North Carolina: I had read that Sassafras was the original source for root beer flavor. Curious, I dug up a root to try, and was instantly enveloped in an overpowering root beer scent.

High summer in California: often, Fennel covers a field or hillside so densely, its scent permeates the whole area as I walk through.

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I like to smell the lemon leaves and Tamarinds too
Tamarinds give out a very strong smell

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What a great thread

I use smells in the outdoor education very often and get people to touch and smell things – esp. plants and less other stuff.

Strangely, people from different places / region esp those with different “food cultures” find different associations with smells.

I wonder when smells will get digitized.

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you should link this thread on your post of the ant. Serantipitous identification :-)

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