Heaven scent

Emma Chaplin
, 18 August 2023
Heaven scent
Creeping Thistle © Neil Fletcher

Stink Horn? Guano?  'Like the armpit of someone you love'?

We asked the staff team for their favourite smells in nature and some of the replies are somewhat unexpected! Read on...

Water Mint © Mark Monk-Terry
Water Mint © Mark Monk-Terry

Alex, Ecologist

Nothing smells fresher than a wetland full of Water Mint. Certain bumblebees smell really lemon-y. Some, like Buff-tail Bees, smell like cheesy feet. Musk Thistle has a divine sweet, musky smell.

Common Restharrow smells like armpits, in a nice way. When running training courses I used smell as a good ID feature. Common Restharrow “smells like the armpits of someone you love”.  

You can identify Sweet Vernal-grass just by pulling a handful of grass and giving it a sniff – some people think it smells of antiseptic, others think it’s the classic cut-hay smell. Oh yes, and Stinking Iris smells like beef hula hoops!

Henri, Director

The smell of the transition between summer and autumn. 

Marine team member

Can I just have the smell of the sea? My partner has the chemical equation for the smell of the sea tattooed on his arm – it’s basically the reason I’m with him!

NB 'Saltwater doesn’t have a smell, but the things that live in it do. The stale, sulphury smell is dimethyl sulphide, produced by bacteria as they digest dead phytoplankton. At low tide, you’ll also smell chemicals called dictyopterenes, - sex pheromones produced by seaweed eggs to attract the sperm. Plus the ‘iodine’ smell of the sea, actually the bromophenols produced by marine worms and algae.' 

taken from this BBC article on why the sea smells like the sea 

Little Gull © Simon Linington
Little Gull © Simon Linington

Katie, Communities & Wildlife

It's a tiny bit late but some still out - Meadow Sweet smells lush and very sweet and you can make a drink out if it, like you can with Elderflower. Not to be confused with Hogweed which stinks! [Not all staff think this ... keep reading!].

Chris, Interim CEO

Rotting seaweed, especially if it is kelp. When smelly kelp on the beaches is a problem we know our project has succeeded!

Bob, Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre (SBRC)

Stink Horns (really), the sea, exhaust fumes from a petrol generator running a moth trap in the woods at night. Dusk, when the dew starts falling. Bracken on a hot day in July.

Stink Horn © Les Binns
Stink Horn © Les Binns

Charlotte, Comms team

The smell of pine trees, especially on a still, sunny day. I think it’s the resin that really smells amazing, it’s sweet but fresh. The smell comes from chemicals called terpenes, which include pinene (which smells of pine) and limonene (which is lemony). Coniferous trees emit more of them in warm weather and the resin has a particularly high concentration. Resin flows out when the bark is damaged and hardens to protect the tree, and the terpenes it contains helps to deter beetles and fungi that would otherwise harm it.

Paul, Site Manager at Rye Harbour

Creeping Thistle [main image] has a surprisingly pleasant smell, almost honey-like to me.

Heather, Membership team

Clean fresh air standing at West Wittering with a nice sea breeze. Walking in the woods after it has rained – that lovely earthy damp smell.

Clive, Ranger

Wild Garlic after a rain shower. Nothing beats it! Downside is it makes me hungry.

Fran, Landscapes Advisor

The smell of fresh rain. 

This can come from: 'Oil secreted from plants, compounds secreted from bacteria and the splitting of atmospheric chemicals to form ozone '.

Taken from this Compound Interest infographic explaining the science behind the smell of rain.

Rain on Bluebell © Derek Middleton
Rain on Bluebell © Derek Middleton

Maria, Director 

A mature pine wood, ideally in autumn. A bit mushroomy, a bit wood-worky and a bit dental surgery all at once. I smelled this on our reserve at Graffham recently.

Steve W, Ranger

Wild Dog Rose, fresh cut hay and a wet woodland.

Emma, Comms team

Petrichor - the scent when rain falls on dry soil. From the Greek words for stone and the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods.

Mike, Communities & Wildlife

Pepper Dulse. More of a tongue burn. Guess you could inhale it like snuff. Or ionised air around crashing waves. Feels and smells electric.

Margaret, Finance team

I love the smell of seaweed. It reminds me of my holidays when we arrived in Portsmouth from London to take the ferry over to the Isle of Wight. Now I live on the coast the smell always reminds me of holidays and the excitement.

Steve, Land Adviser 

The smell of cut grass when hay making. Or Marjoram and Thyme when walking over some chalk grassland.

Wild Marjoram © Nigel Symington
Wild Marjoram © Nigel Symington

Chloe, Wilder Horsham District

Gorse, because it smells of coconut. You can actually eat the Gorse flower but it doesn’t taste anywhere near as good as it smells!

Sam, Comms team

The sweet smell of heather in August - just says summer to me.

Angela, Finance director

Privet – reminds me of hiding in the bushes playing hide and seek when I was young.

Barry, volunteer 

Hogweed oil - smell by splitting a seed. Refreshing. Mugwort - smell by squashing tip of bud - a hint of lavender, refreshing. Garlic Snail. Fennel.  Alexanders seeds - crush to release a peppery aroma.Guano - unpleasant smell, but does mean that in a seabird colony there's lots of chicks being fed lots of fish. 

Hogweed seeds © Barry Yates
Hogweed seeds © Barry Yates

Anon

The sickly sweet smell of the Death Cap comes to mind...

Millie, SBRC

Honeysuckle, Bluebells, and conkers.

Do let us know your favourite scents of nature in Sussex.

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