I recieved a horribly deformed paph David Ott today. When inspecting the flowers upclose, I noticed it had a fragrance which I had not noted before. It smelled quite strongly of pepper like some cattleyas do, instead of urea.

Has anyone noted a fragrance in supardii flowers?

Yes, come to think of it, my supardii also had a very faint peppery smell which I thought was a little odd.

And you're upset it didn't smell like Urea ? :-)

No, pleasantly surprised. When I gave a stonei x kolopakingii flower to my girlfriend, she quickly threw it in the trash and said it smelled strongly of urine. I knew it would, but I've grown accustomed to it i guess. :evil:

I'm waiting for some very intensely fragrant paphs to come up. When I find them, I'll breed them.

Well, I have an emersonii x vietnamense which smells of wild cyclamens. You know it is in the room--not too strong, just georgeous.

Hmmm, can you explain the Urea issue? This is common in Paphs then? What about Phrags?

Steve - I have a Phrag. Mountain Maid - besseae var. flavum x hirtzii - that smells quite strongly of sweetened urine - neither parent is generally fragrant. No one believes my hybrid could smell of this, but, alas, it does. It is on its' second blooming also. Any thoughts? Thank you!

I also heard that some caudatum flowers smell like urine but mine has no scent so far.

Phrag schlimii and some of its hybrids smell like raspberry. I think that is clone dependent (some clones do and some don't) as well as person dependent. I did a little experiment with a Hanne Popow that I thought was extremely fragrant. Half the people in the orchid society could smell it, the other half smelled nothing...

Paph. malipoense is supposed to have fragrance. I've never smelled it though. Perhaps I lack that receptor.

Yes, my schlimii is fragrant and smells like raspberries. I have sniffed kolopakingii flowers and they also smell very fruity and honey like and mine is in sheath so can't wait to see if they are also fragrant!

I've heard malipoense fragrance described as rasberrys or pine.

Mine smelled like pine to me.

My first emersonii had an amazingly intense fragrance....very pleasant, but I am useless at fragrance descriptions...it wasn't lemony like delanatii or C. acaule...I guess jasmine type? My second emersonii had a similar fragrance, but much weaker. I think, among fragrant paphs, that fragrance is very variable. I have found many several delanatii that have no fragrance at all (coincidentally, from the newer vietnamese clones)...but my most fragrant delanatii is from a cross that has also produced totally fragrnce-free clones. Dennis D'Allessandro has told me that in Germany many delanatii's are being bred strictly for fragrance...Take care, Eric

Heather what does sweetened urin smell like? I like sweet tea does that :poke: My Lynleigh Koopowitz doesnt have a fragrance I am kind of bummed.

Tadd- it smells like Urea. I happen to have one bloom that dropped today sitting right here next to me. It's stinky! Makes me wrinkle my nose up every time I sniff it, researching for you crazy people! :D

I smelled a malipoense with a raspberrys' fragrance.
delenati, it was lemon for mine, and rose for my boyfriend 's one.
Botanical primulinum have fragrance too, but never smelled one.

Many villosum strains smell strongly of urine as well. There are two reasons I see possible, and both concurrent.

Firstly, the urea smell comes from the high amount of nitrogen used to produce the flower, the second is as an attractant for pollinators.

Many villosum strains smell strongly of urine as well. There are two reasons I see possible, and both concurrent.

Firstly, the urea smell comes from the high amount of nitrogen used to produce the flower, the second is as an attractant for pollinators.

Sorry Steve - going to continue to pick your brain on this - so WHY is Mtn. Maid fragrant when the parents aren't - could it be my culture? Higher nitrogen content? Just want to understand - that makes sense, just not sure what my nitro content is - I think the interesting thing that may negate this is that the first bloom (it arrived in spike from Parkside) had the fragrance, and in my culture, over a year - second bloom still has same fragrance.

There are many reasons. The fragrance could easily be recessive in the parents, and expressed in a few of the children. Or perhaps the parents produce a fragrance, but we cannot smell it, until they combine. Or perhaps one or both parents were a fragrant variety, remember, a species is not a species, each one is unique and only can be generally accepted as a species. For example, one colony of Paph rothschildianum might be the ones with the burgundy pouch and a fragrance, whereas another colony only 20km away might have the red pouch and no fragrance, who can say? But they are the same species, technically. And of course, it could be that the children translocate high amounts of urea into the flowers, or it could simply be your culture allows it to reach such wonderfully acrid proportions.

Thank you! That was most helpful, and much more so than the people who have simply said "Mtn. Maid has no fragrance" which in my case is simply not true, and frustrating to hear.

Heather, didn't you also say that your Berenice flowers smell like roses? I think different people just smell things differently.

I think people just smell differently.

I recieved a horribly deformed paph David Ott today. When inspecting the flowers upclose, I noticed it had a fragrance which I had not noted before. It smelled quite strongly of pepper like some cattleyas do, instead of urea.

Has anyone noted a fragrance in supardii flowers?

many coryopedilums have a slight spicy fragrance to me, particularly things with roths, gland/wilhelm, peoy, etc etc.