Plant Scents

By Eran Pichersky

What we perceive as a fragrant perfume is actually a sophisticated tool used by plants to entice pollinators, discourage microbes and fend off predators

Biology Chemistry Evolution Botany

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November-December 2004

Volume 92, Number 6
Page 514

DOI: 10.1511/2004.50.514

Scents have a way of jolting us into recalling deeply seated memories. The whiff of a plant's fragrance might bring to mind childhood experiences, evoking a sense of time and place more powerfully than any other stimulus.

Wolfgang Kaehler/Corbis

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