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Scents and Sensitivity
Audubon, May/June 2009
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(UW-Madison Department of Botany)
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Your great-grandmother's roses really might have smelled sweeter. University of Virginia atmospheric scientist José Fuentes and colleagues have shown in a computer simulation that through chemical reactions, pollutants like smog can destroy floral scents. Under pre-industrial conditions, more than 80 percent of a snapdragon's scent was detectable 3,280 feet away. At that distance today in an urban setting, less than 60 percent is measurable, and in highly polluted areas, only 30 percent of the aroma remains. This reduction could confuse pollinators like bees, which might suffer from longer searches for food, thereby impeding their ability to pollinate crops, says Fuentes. So while flowers are still a romantic gift for your sweetheart, these days they might not quite meet the bees' needs. —Laura Shin
View the article on the Audubon Magazine Web site.
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