Madam Arcati and I went again yesterday to Kew Gardens, to take full advantage of this beautiful early spring: to catch the magnificent magnolias in full bloom and the fruit trees in blossom, before the seasonal gales blow them all away. One tree in particular (above) has a captivating scent - Pyrus calleryana, commonly known as the Callery pear.
From Vice magazine:
This pretty, floral tree somewhat resembles the cherry blossom. Its five-petalled flowers are dainty and white. If they could talk, I imagine they'd say, "come and have a picnic under us!"We had a sniff, and moved on. The old, old story.
Wrong.
The Callery pear smells like ... semen. At the University of California, Santa Barbara, they want you to know that it smells like human male semen, to be sure. So many people have called it the "semen tree" that it warranted an entry in Urban Dictionary, aptly defined as the odour of "used sex rags."
[I have, inevitably, featured this unusual tree before]
A fab day out and fab photos.
ReplyDeleteIf any one doubts the scent of the "semen tree" they will just have to sniff one themselves
It truly does with no mistake !
How queer !
I'm certainly not including it in the Mothers' Day bouquet... Jx
DeleteMaybe a miniature one in the extensive gardens at Dolores Delargo Towers?
DeleteMaybe send a cutting to Mistress MJ, and wake her up from her coma? Jx
DeleteAnd the Callery pear isn't the only one...
ReplyDeleteThat's a rather striking photo, Jon. An ominous portent of rain. I hope you didn't get wet?
I have never thought the Linden/Lime tree to smell like that - it's positively rose-scented in comparison to the "semen tree"...
DeleteAs for the day at Kew itself, we didn't get showered by rain, nor anything else for that matter. :-)
Jx
We have those here in places. My friends always comment they think I have visited the neighborhood, when it fact, I didn't. It was the Callery pear.
ReplyDeleteI did wonder whether they might be an aphrodisiac to you. Jx
DeleteAnd I wouldn't picnic beneath one - they have very weak crotches so you
ReplyDeleted likely get bonked on your noggin.
Been there :-)
DeleteJx