When Stapelia blooms, it smells like a dead cat. One that's been dead for a week, locked in the house with all the windows shut. But it's not half as bad as Amorphophallus, which smells, as its name suggests, like a run-over phallus. These plants smell like road kill on purpose: they're trying to attract flies to pollinate them. This makes perfect sense.

But why on earth would a tree smell like cat pee? Could the tree be trying to repel leaf-eating predators (deer? giraffes?) by mimicking the scent of mountain lion wee-wee?

I beleive the worst plant smell I've ever encountered was the foul odor of a female Ginko biloba with fruit splattered all over the ground. I couldn't go within 100 yards of the tree without retching. It was indescribably nasty, not like any other thing I've smelled in my life. Is there a known reason for this particular piece of performance art? What does Ms. Ginko strive to accomplish?

The University of Toronto had this wondrous female ginko smack next to the student union where I used to get off the bus. I was convinced I'd stepped in dog feces every time I walked over to DH's office in the spring. Then I realized everyone else thought so too. It was funny watching everyone checking their shoes. I wonder if the tree is still there. Pretty leaves though.

I haven't checked the tree forum but anise, Illicum floridanum smells like cat urine. The ginko tree doesn't smell all that bad to me, in fact, it smells sort of like the Chinaberry tree. Could they possibly be related?

Eddie! A female one? You must get your smeller checked at the emergency room!

Maybe Eddie's tree is a boy?

My experience of female Ginkos was on the UC Berkeley campus. It seems they were commonly planted on college campuses 50 or 60 years ago, before people were aware of the leetle odor "problem." Ginkos were extinct in the wild, kept only in cultivation in Chinese and Japanese temples, until they were reintroduced into the western holticultural trade in the 1930s.

It's butyric acid that causes the smell, the same chemical that makes rancid butter stink. But why? Is the tree trying to attract large carrion-eating birds to the fallen fruit, so they'll spread the seeds far & wide? I think the nuts inside the fruit are too large for smaller birds, so that could make sense. Surely something wouldn't go out of its way to be so repugnant for no reason.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ginkos emit bad odors at Purdue

Do you suppose disgruntled alumni donate female ginkos across the country in the hope of being removed from mailing lists??

Howdy Writers. I bought a few varieties of ornamental Salvia and boy do they ever stink and it is exactly like cat pee! I'm heading over to "see" those funny people at the Tree forum to catch up.

BTW, the Ginko fruit at Temple in Ambler stinks to the high heavens and the tree is right next to the Admissions building. What does that suggest to you?

Correction: So that no garden writer picks up a bit of wrong information and passes it on to perpetuity.

Ginkgo trees were thought to be extinct in the wild, until a stand was found growing in a remote valley in China. At that same time, they were not grown only in Chinese and Japanese temple gardens. There were numerous examples growing in parks and landscapes in the United States, so they were only thought to be extinct in the wild.

(Also, please note the proper spelling of the name.)

Thank you for the correction, Field. I guess I got my information from a bad source. I'll go back and double check.

Don't bother, Elizabeth. An easier way is to write a story for a large metropolitan newspaper, like I did, and say that "ginkgo trees were once thought to be extinct" (the copy editor deleted "in the wild" because she thought it was redundant). Readers will quickly send you all the factual references and information you could ever need. (We printed a correction the next day.)

Heh! Well, at least it's nice to know they're paying attention.

I don't know about a tree smelling funky...but a couple of years ago I had a funny experience with some forced paperwhite bulbs. So maybe it's not the ginkgo...could be another plant, who knows? I swear, I thought I was going nuts for a while there.

At the time, I was a Martha Stewart fan (ugh) and bought into the idea that forcing paperwhite bulbs in winter was a Good Thing. So they grew beautifully, and one day I walked past them and wrinkled my nose. I have cats, but I'm usually good about keeping their box clean, yet no matter what I did my dining room reeked. Nobody had ever clued me in that paperwhites smell like cat pee, and I seriously wonder why so many people like them!

Next winter I'm forcing hyacinths, they smell much nicer.

--Pam

With ginkgo trees, it's the fruit that smells bad. If you'd like to plant a tree that will repel boarders with its everpresent odor of rotting flesh, then find yourself a Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima). (I've always thought there must be an interesting story behind the origin of that name.)

pkock: Last winter I grew paperwhites indoors. My boyfriend said they smelled "satanic" and he demanded that I get them out of the house!

I've always thought the Loquat in bloom smelled horrid. (If I've the right tree) There was one that loomed over the entrance to our college library.

and I happen to ADORE the scent of paperwhites
maybe it might be the variety, as there are alot of them
maybe there are different smells.

Also, do all chinaberries stink? I've been around alot, though never lived with one. never noticed one stinking.

You'll find a terrible odor to the Chestnut trees in spring, too.

I LOVE the smell of Paperwhites blooming, but only a few at a time. Louisiana irises smell like cat pee. One Easter Sunday I had huge bouquets of them throughout the dining room and living room. Everyone was too polite to say anything until late in the day when I mentioned that I would never put them in close proximity to people and food tables again.

Paperwhites - gross.
Mountain ash - also gross, the scent reminds me of outhouses at the lake. Whaaa...

-GC

A couple of weeks ago I spent quite a bit of time gathering seeds from many of the native plants in my garden. The various seed heads were clipped and deposited in labelled paper bags of various sizes. Since the forecast was for stormy weather that night, I brought all of the bags into the house and set them on a table for the time being.

We had a wedding to attend that evening and got home quite late, but as soon as I walked into the house, a smell rose up, smacked me in the nostrils and greeted me. "Dog vomit!" I exclaimed. "The dog got sick and we'd better figure out where it is."

I turned on all the lights and did a quick search of all the usual places, such as the carpet. (Digression: You know it is a scientifically proven fact that dogs prefer to vomit on carpeting instead of other surfaces such as tile or hardwood. In ancient times, large packs of dogs were known to roam for miles in search of carpeting to vomit upon.) But my search was fruitless and I was tired, so I adopted a Scarlett O'Hara attitude and decided to worry about it tomorrow.

First thing in the morning, the smell again was unmistakable. I once again searched high and low and finally found the source of the smell. The bag of Penstemon digitalis seedheads were quickly moved outside!

Who knew?

V.

Heard an interesting story about ginkos at a conference earlier this year:

The speaker was a plant hunter, and was talking urban forestry with a Chinese expert on the topic, and asked him whether they selected for male trees for street tree planting.

The guy apparently looked at him like he was crazy...they were all female, of course, since ginko nuts are a delicacy in China.

Bummer we can't get apples or peaches to grow well on our city streets!

You should know stuff like this Johnny. Planty things don't exude a smell that attracts us, the guys that want to shape 'em up. They want to smell like rotten meat to attract flies or cats pee to attract..well this is where my theory breaks down.

Box wood occasionally produces a penetrant smell of cat pee. Though the case has been scientifically investigated, the cause has not been found. There's no pattern with season, flowering or weather conditions detectable.

Somebody recently supposed that the cause for the smell is in fact cat pee, as the creatures love to hide under thick box wood shrubs and would mark them as their territory.

many azaleas have a scent that i sometimes cant tell is repulsive or intoxicating.