It all begins with the smell of jasmine, the fragrance from the chest of a hawk, rainy days, mother’s cooking, or freshly-ground pepper. As a perfumer, those aromas speak to me and as a biologist it is their origin and purpose that inspire me to dig deeper. The stories in Scent: A Natural History of Fragrance are told from the perspective of flowers, seeds, bark, resin, leaves, and stamens that make the scents of plants to reach out to moths, beetles, bees, flies, mosquitoes, and other plants. To protect from disease and predation, and to communicate. Humans have a long history with fragrant plants whether for beauty, pleasure, or medicine and have traveled the oceans, planted them in gardens, and distilled their essences.

Click the links below to find photos of some of the plants and critters that I write about and that have inspired me. Enjoy!

See photos and find out a bit about the fragrant natural history of pollinators, petals, resins wood forest, seeds roots, leaves needles grass.

A bit about the book:

Section 1 is all about the fragrance of incense, woods, and resins and covers frankincense, myrrh, copal, agarwood, and sandalwood.

Section 2 takes you to the world of aromatic spices where you can discover the stories of cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, saffron, chocolate, and vanilla.

Section 3 begins in the garden where roses bloom and fragrant tobacco attracts the sphinx moth to its white flowers. Herbs are at home as well, and lavender and rosemary have their own stories to tell.

Section 4 includes a story of distillation beginning with mint and turpentine with side trips into iconic conifers. Perfume notes like citrus, jasmine, and musk tell their own tales of origin, fragrance, and terroir.

Section 5 takes us to modern perfumery, fashion, impossible flowers, lilacs, sweetgrass, and molecules.