A Conversation about my Happy Nose

Last week I was whining about missing out on some of my favorite springtime smells. This week my faith in heavenly aromas was restored. Walking past an old stone wall, I noticed a beautiful scent. I looked around and found the source... a clump of Korean Lilac. Continuing along the same road, I was interrupted by another blast of fragrance. It was Dame's Rocket, a wildflower that proliferates madly and makes big swathes of  (usually) purple in shady woods and roadside meadows. With my faith  in my nose reassured, I happily proceeded on my way along the road. No more scents on my country road, but later, when I drove up the highway I was greeted with another perfume. It had to be pretty big to smell it from a car. I glanced around and realized I was driving through a grove of honey locust, or maybe black locust, I'm not sure of the ID at fifty five miles an hour. Both are native trees, but both can be invasive in behavior. I don't encourage either in a small area, although there are some hybrids that are well-behaved. The “wild” ones have thorns... big time. But, when you and your nose are driving through a patch of them that have colonized a roadside, they smell wonderful.                                         I realize that each of the plants I'm talking about today can be confused for another plant. They are often misidentified because of the family resemblance. The  dwarf Korean lilac, Syringa pubescens, is an introduced type of lilac that stays where it's planted and never goes invasive. It behaves differently from the old fashioned lilac, Syringa vulgaris, in several ways. First, the part of the name, “dwarf”, is a clue. These plants max out at about four foot tall and have smaller florets in looser sprays than the common type. They smell almost as good, but don't broadcast the scent as much. Plant them where you will pass them during their flowering season. This, by the way, is about a week after the “regular” lilacs finish, so they extend the season. Oh... they often pop out a second flowering in late summer.                                                    Another lookalike is the Dame's rocket, Hesperis matronala. This is technically an invasive plant, but since it was introduced in the sixteen hundreds, I am bestowing honorary citizenship. The Latin name refers to the fact that the scent is more powerful in the evening (hesperis=vespers, or evening) and because it has always been a favorite of lady gardeners (matrons). Many people call this “wild phlox.” They're very different when you look closely, though. Phlox have 5 petals and Dame's Rocket has 4. So if you're not sure, count petals. And Phlox smells nice, too... just not as strong.                                       Since I brought them up, the Locusts are not very closely related. They're sort of second cousins. Honey locust is called Gleditsia triacanthos, and is the safer of the two. Except for the thorns. The thorns on the honey locust are terrifying! Black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia, is the one that usually smells amazing. The black locust is toxic and very invasive. If you see it on your property, get rid of it. It is an aggressive colonizer. Climate change seems to be accelerating the spread of these natives well beyond their normal range. There's not a thing I can do about forests of it along the cliffs of route 23 in Catskill, so I'll just enjoy the few fleeting moments when it spreads joy. To my nose, anyway.