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  Odor detection
From: Don Martinson llmen at wi.rr.com> on 2002.06.27 at 17:59:56(9023)
>I am still surprised by the eagerness to blame this on anything else but
>your noses. I told you before that the chemical analysis of the scent is
>nearly 100% anise-oil. This is a pure scientific result. Now those who don't
>smell it obviously have a deficiency not those who do smell it.

As an undergraduate, I did some research into the heritability of the
ability to detect the bitter taste of various substances. For
several types of these substances, there are demonstrably "tasters"
and "non-tasters" and that the ability to taste them is genetically
linked.

While I know of no scientific studies in this area currently under
discussion (i.e. the compounds in aroid floral odors), it would not
be unreasonable that similar mechanisms might exist.
--
Don Martinson

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From: Piabinha at aol.com on 2002.06.27 at 19:34:10(9025)
lord malodorus,

i am not saying that Amorph. don't stink when they flower. i don't doubt the chemical composition of the compounds in the inflorescences. all i'm saying is i have not detected any strong smells in the two you sent me that bloomed (sumawongii and longituberosus). maybe i'm just not home when they stink to high heaven, but in the morning and in the evening when i am, i couldn't detect anything. i think bernhard also couldn't smell a thing. i was expecting my apt. to smell like a rat had died but so far it hasn't happened (thank goodness).

it's interesting because Stapeliads also have a reputation for being "carrion flowers" and i could detect very clearly the stench from Edithcolea grandis when it bloomed, but it wasn't detectable from a distance. with Stapelia angolensis, i had to stick my nose up the flowers to get a whiff of that pestilence. it just sounds to me that the bad odors of some flowers have been greatly exaggerated. of course, with an inflorescence as big as titanum, i'd think the odors are much stronger.

--
tsuh yang in nyc

From: "Wilbert Hetterscheid" hetter at worldonline.nl> on 2002.06.28 at 03:49:37(9033)
I agree. But we can at least establish that the scent is there and the nose
is the problem (or the genes that control the nose). The odour studies have
been published in two papers, one in Phytochemistry and one in the
proceedings of a symposium.

Lord P.

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