Are there any trees that give off a particularly strong smell? Like if you were driving along a road with a forest on either side, you could smell the trees? Do maple trees smell like syrup? (That last question is slightly unrelated, but I wanted to ask it out of curiosity)
Hi Nonny,
There are a lot of fragrant trees actually, but unless the forest is only composed of one type of tree your character is hardly going to smell anything other than forest. Especially not from a car driving by in the distance, but they would likely be able to smell an apple orchard in bloom while driving close by, considering the sheer mass of trees and flowers in that case. They would get an even better sense of smell while standing on the orchard that’s for certain.What they would most certainly smell is lilac, although a shrub (sometimes large enough to be mistaken for a tree), lilac, in general, gives off a pretty strong smell. The darker the flowers the stronger the smell, which is to say that if there was for some reason a multitude of lilac shrubs planted close to the forest or in any other area they drive by they would very, very likely be able to smell that without a problem.
I’m happy to inform you that yes, sugar maples do indeed smell sugary because of their sap. Silver maples, however, don’t, they smell rather foul. So it really depends on what kinda maple your character faces.
- Mod Jana
I think it also may depend on what they are used to. Loblolly Pine forests in east Texas smell different to me than the primarily oak forests around central Texas where I grew up. Juniper (another shrub) has a distinctive smell to me, possibly because I’m allergic.
Ginkgo Biloba trees have seeds with a strong (unpleasant) smell. Magnolia trees tend to have a strong smell, especially when flowering. I’m not really sure a character would encounter a forest of these trees though.
I would say that if the character hadn’t been around a forest for awhile, or had only been around different trees, then it’s possible that with the windows down and the forest fairly close to the road that they could smell the trees. They’d probably only be able to identify specific trees if there were some of the exceptionally fragrant ones, especially in bloom or having gone to seed, or if they were familiar with the smell from previous regular visits.But if they have been in the forest for months and years, then they probably wouldn’t note the smell when driving through it. It would be background information that they didn’t think about usually.~Mod Den
Disclaimer
This blog is intended as writing advice only. This blog and its mods are not responsible for accidents, injuries or other consequences of using this advice for real world situations or in any way that said advice was not intended.
