Comments on: Smelly tree, smelly tree, it's not your fault...

Question: Smelly tree, smelly tree, it's not your fault...

summit — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:54:12 -0800

What tree smells like semen or vagina? This tree seems to be really popular around greater Boston. It has 5 white petals on each flower and the leaves look similar to this alternate drawing. The worst part is that while it's flowering, the tree smells like semen or vagina, depending on who you ask. What kind of tree is it? It's definitely not the Chinese chestnut.

By: turgid dahlia

turgid dahlia — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:01:17 -0800

Your query disturbs and upsets me but perhaps they are Bradford Pears?

By: toomuch

toomuch — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:07:01 -0800

I don't know the word for this but I'm consistently amazed at the timely content here on askme. My coworkers and I were talking about this very subject on the walk to coffee this morning. Sorry I have no answer, but love the question.

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:07:42 -0800

Could you take a picture and link it, instead of trying to describe it according to bodily fluids?

By: Sufi

Sufi — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:09:28 -0800

Don't feel bad. I was recently at a friends house and smelled semen all evening, finally realizing it was that damn tree. One of their housemates had taken a branch of the flowers and put them in a vase. They looked like the ones in the third picture from turgid dahlia's post.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:10:14 -0800

Bradford pears are indeed common spooge trees.

By: otherwordlyglow

otherwordlyglow — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:12:10 -0800

Ginkgo? The female gingko tree smells yucky.

By: M.C. Lo-Carb!

M.C. Lo-Carb! — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:12:38 -0800

I have a Bradford Pear in my front yard, its flowers are as you describe, as is the smell.

By: otherwordlyglow

otherwordlyglow — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:12:46 -0800

But those aren't the right leaves, so maybe not.

By: M.C. Lo-Carb!

M.C. Lo-Carb! — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:14:13 -0800

Bradford Pear porn.

By: Rallon

Rallon — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:14:23 -0800

Wow, timely is right. I'd been wondering similarly, since we have several very pretty white-flowering trees right nearby from which I'd noticed that exact bizarre odor, and they look a lot like the Bradford Pears from turgid dahlia's link. I love AskMe.

By: turgid dahlia

turgid dahlia — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:16:00 -0800

otherworldlyglow: There are four completely different types of leaf on that link so I don't know that it will be much help.

By: xetere

xetere — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:16:14 -0800

Two candidates are Ailanthus Altissima and also Elderberry, both have ammonia-like scented flowers redolent of semen.

Ailanthus has five petals and a whitish (but not pure white) color. Five petals on the flower are hard to see in the Wikipedia article's photo, but perhaps this one is better.
The Wikipedia article has a good close-up of Elderberry's flowers. Both to me have a distinctly semen smell, funny how both trees' flowers are described as "fetid" or "foul-smelling."

Both trees leaves are "compound" so are not equivalent to the "alternate" in your example, but it is easy to mistake compound leaves for alternate sometimes. Bradford pear's leaves are alternate, but the leaves themselves have smooth edges. Flowers are match your description though, but I never smelled semen, or much of anything on a Bradford pear though.

All three will be found growing abundantly around Boston.

By: rmless

rmless — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:16:30 -0800

All of the streets in my neighborhood are lined with these. I sometimes dread Spring because of their scent. We all call them Cum Trees.

By: dilettante

dilettante — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:17:59 -0800

Ginkgo

By: dilettante

dilettante — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:19:42 -0800

And the Straight Dope on stinky trees.

By: nomisxid

nomisxid — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:37:06 -0800

mimosa trees

By: jquinby

jquinby — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:50:26 -0800

They had a similar reputation at UGA, where they were craftily planted near the meal hall of all places. I'm not sure why Bradfords get planted everywhere. They stink to high heaven, drop all manner of crap and split in half at the slightest breeze. They don't have alternating leaves, though, do they? I would check the one in our yard, but we had it yanked for all of the aforementioned reasons. Most especially the splitting.

By: rooftop secrets

rooftop secrets — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:57:50 -0800

yes, these are called the Cum Trees on the USC campus.

By: sarcasticah

sarcasticah — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:58:05 -0800

Oh, man, I'm glad I'm not the only one that is grossed out by the semen smell of those trees! They are everywhere in Kendall Square, where I work.

By: scody

scody — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:15:50 -0800

Heh. The Straight Dope link on the fabled sperm trees of Los Angeles is hilarious. When I first moved here, I couldn't figure out what the hell I kept smelling in my neighborhood in Los Feliz, though I always described it more like a pair of patchouli-wearing hippies having sex.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:20:09 -0800

Ginkgo? The female gingko tree smells yucky.

I think you are thinking of the ginkgo fruits, 1) which would be all over the ground 2) smell like barf, not spooge.

By: chesty_a_arthur

chesty_a_arthur — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:25:22 -0800

If the answer is ginkgo, someone needs to get to the doctor, stat.

By: sixcolors

sixcolors — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:25:33 -0800

There's a tree on campus that smells like ass, its name is "pyrus calleryana". It had white flowers before the leaves popped out, I didn't pay attention how many petals it had.

By: jade east

jade east — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:45:25 -0800

We used to have a tree that smelled like semen in front of our old apartment building, one of the little kids who lived on a lower floor heard the colloquial term used to describe the smell. Thanks to that kid, no matter what the official title it's always going to be a "Gum tree" to me.

By: Coatlicue

Coatlicue — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:34:51 -0800

I knew you were talking about Bradford pears as soon as I read your post. But when I had my first experience with them, I thought they smelled like menstrual blood.

By: soplerfo

soplerfo — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:35:06 -0800

My run takes me past rows and rows of these stupid things, all around Tufts campus - they're beautiful, but awful smelling...

By: hexatron

hexatron — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:35:13 -0800

Is it the country? (runs, hides)

By: proj08

proj08 — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:36:49 -0800

Ginkos have been around since the dinosaur age (see the wikipedia link). So obviously Ginko fruit was tasty for dinosaurs. Makes one think: humans dislike the smell because we evolved to stay away from the plants where all the dinosaurs were hanging out, for safety reasons. Possible explanation for the natural question "Why do these trees sink?" To test it, you might want to see if all mammals dislike the smell, and if reptiles and birds are fond of it. FWIW

By: farmdoggie

farmdoggie — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:48:08 -0800

Semen and vagina do not smell alike. To me, Bradford Pears smell more like lobster bisque.

By: Enroute

Enroute — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:03:26 -0800

Well I don't know about Bradford pears, but I have a mountain ash right outside my door that smells exactly like semen when it flowers. So I guess there's more than one. Yay.

By: Rich Smorgasbord

Rich Smorgasbord — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:22:33 -0800

If you go on a bike ride in early summer in New England, you'll be blasted with this smell about once every half hour. It's not just any smell. It has such a primal reek that it's kind of fascinating. Some people don't notice it though, or at least don't detect the full spectrum of the aroma, and give you blank looks when you mention it. I'm glad someone understands.

By: necessitas

necessitas — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:31:37 -0800

As disturbing as turgid_dahlia finds this query, it has actually been discussed here before. Check out this derail and read down (the actual question is not at all about semen scented trees).

By: Tixylix

Tixylix — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:01:41 -0800

I know them as Manchurian pear trees. Or spooge tree. Gorgeous display of colour in autumn, but springtime ...

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:45:21 -0800

tulip poplars

By: MadamM

MadamM — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:03:54 -0800

I hate those things. I think they smell like a combination of rotting fish and rubber, which hey, maybe that's how semen and vagina smell to you. I kinda don't see it, but then I smelled these trees before I smelled ether of those things.

By: crinklebat

crinklebat — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:08:31 -0800

Freaking jizz trees. I thought I got away from them when I moved out of SoCal but here they are in Palo Alto.

By: wuzandfuzz

wuzandfuzz — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:33:07 -0800

We called them cum trees at UC Davis as well, and I recently had the uncomfortable experience of discussing the smell with my mom while in Pleasanton, CA, where they are all freaking over the place. Ah, Bradford Pears, the subject of so many delightfully uncomfortable conversations.

By: peacheater

peacheater — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:46:37 -0800

They're all over the Cornell campus too. I thought just me and my friend noticed it!

By: tremspeed

tremspeed — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:44:14 -0800

Jizz trees in NJ as well.

By: bifter

bifter — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:25:34 -0800

There's something in the UK that smells like that too - we used to call it spunkweed when I was a kid. Never quite managed to pin down what it was, but I think it was more ground-level shrub than tree.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:11:07 -0800

Semen and vagina do not smell alike. To me, Bradford Pears smell more like lobster bisque.

You're making lobster bisque wrong.

Nthing that these are Bradford Pear Trees.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:58:50 -0800

Ginkgos are indeed smelly, but it's dog poop they remind me of. Like, totally dog poop.

By: genefinder

genefinder — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:01:59 -0800

Well, at least once the flowers and their odor are gone, the fruit from these can fall all over my truck when I park in front of my house. So I have that going for me.

By: pete0r

pete0r — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:31:42 -0800

I've been wondering about this all week here at Penn State. It smells like semen everywhere.

By: GardenGal

GardenGal — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:01:29 -0800

OMG. I have been married for 5 years and if my husband's semen smelled like a Bradford Pear, I'd give him 24 hours to go see a doctor. If my vagina smelled like that, I'd douche with lysol.

In any case, the Bradford pear is only one of many varieties of Pyrus Calleryana, some of which smell better than others.

I had been planning on planting a row of them, since the smell had previously reminded me only of old fish, but now.... maybe not.

By: JMalcolmK

JMalcolmK — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:16:02 -0800

I first encountered that tree when I was living in Atlanta and a buddy of mine called it a cum tree. For some reason I thought it was a Dogwood, but I could be mistaken.

Now I'm back in Boston and I'm surprised to smell the same damn tree up here.