#smells

i learned from a Plant Guy (can't say much about the program i was in for privacy reasons) who identified plants mostly by smelling them. A lot of plants have striking smells, and a lot of them don't smell like anything else.

Ailanthus altissimia trees have one of the worst smells ever. They smell sort of like peanut butter, like it's an oily, almost savory smell, but it's very heavily mixed with the smell of a musty basement. It is utterly foul.

Datura/jimsonweed smells so nasty I can't even touch the plant without my stomach turning. It shares some notes with ailanthus smell, but it's different.

Poison hemlock likewise is foul.

All parts of the kudzu plant have a very cloying artificial grape smell, but when you boil the stems/foliage it mixes with a smell of sweaty feet.

Pawpaw leaves smell extremely bitter. Oak leaves smell...oaky, and I didn't consciously realize there was an oaky smell until I was attempting to dry acorn flour in the oven and it smelled like that.

Plants in the mint family have a lot of aromatic compounds and different plants of the same species can smell like mint, basil, orange peel or even eucalyptus.

Black walnut smells like itself. It's all at once musky, spicy, sharp, and chemical-y but none of that actually describes what it smells like.

Hickory nuts have the most heavenly, buttery-sweet, almost maple syrup like smell you can imagine.

One of my favorite plants is Collinsonia canadensis, citronella horse balm, and its flowers have this unbelievably strong citronella smell.

Wild roses, at least the Carolina rose, have an absolutely lovely smell. I usually hate floral smells but this one is so pleasant. It's hard to understand in the era of always-blooming, unkillable, scentless Knock Out roses why roses were so revered in symbolism for so long, but the wild ones really are wonderful.

Speaking of smells, one of the worst smells I have ever encountered was chicken feather meal. It is basically ground-up chicken feathers and Farmer Family Friend was using it as a nitrogen fertilizer for his crops. I was spreading the stuff around and raking it out and god it was awful, I can't really describe it though.

Vintage perfume vessels & fragrance bottles from history and across civilizations.

For thousands of years, humanity has shaped the materials around the fragrant essences of herbal plants to keep them contained. In ancient workshops, they kneaded and fired clay. Potters in Greece and Rhodes molded terracotta into the shapes of owls, frogs, and lion heads. Along the Mediterranean's southern shores, Egyptian artisans crafted faience perfume bottles shaped like hedgehogs. In the 13th century BC, Nefertari's ointments were kept in round boxes with wood details.

During the Roman era, glassmaking changed production methods. Artisans blew molten sand over a fire to design vials shaped like fish and dates. They engraved delicate white figures onto blue glass. In a Pompeii mural, we see a woman carefully pouring liquid from one of these slender bottles. Over time, perfume vessels weren't just tabletop objects anymore. In 18th-century Europe, they were attached directly to clothing. English and German craftsmen worked silver and gold into flasks shaped like hearts, daggers, and skulls. Women tied them to their waists with metal chains.

TW for mentions of viscera and skin clothing

Mortarion:

Bro most likely smells like a really damp forest. Y'know that musty, earthy smell? Smells a little like fungus, a little like dirt, a little like rain? He smells like petrichor, and it's not even intentional.

Fulgrim

With as much perfume he probably baths in, Fulgrim probably smells like sugar, maybe with a few hints of lavender. Every so often, he smells like chocolate. Post Slaanesh, that sweet, sugary floral scent becomes almost rotten, even nauseating to be around.

Curze

As much of a Curze simp that I am, you cannot convince me this man smells anything other than revolting. He's coated himself in viscera and who knows what other bodily fluids, and even wears a cloak made out of skin. He's the sickly sweet smell of rot, and the metallic tang of blood.

scopOphilic_micromessaging_1500 - scopOphilic1997 presents a new micro-messaging series: small, subtle, and often unintentional messages we send and receive verbally and non-verbally. (2012 2022)