Save the Flowers – Would-be scent engineers aim to resurrect lost floral fragrance
No one knows what’s responsible for this waning of fragrance by roses and other ornamental-flower varieties, including carnations and chrysanthemums, but scientists who investigate floral scent suspect that the flower breeding that’s led to an estimated 18,000 rose cultivars in an ever-widening spectrum has run roughshod over fragrance.
“Pigment compounds are derived from the same biochemical precursors [as scent compounds are], so it makes sense that if you make more of one you get less of the other,” notes floral-scent biochemist and geneticist Eran Pichersky of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
I, for one, often choose my roses strictly on scent. That’s one thing I missed most at our new house: not having my rose garden. Gonna have to start one next year…
