Flower scents
Audio 02:30
A flower of Jasminum grandiflorum, the jasmine used in perfumery © RFI / Florent Guignard
By: Florent Guignard
8 mins
To attract pollinators, the flowers emit perfume, which humans have been able to exploit, particularly in Grasse, "world capital of perfume", in the south of France.
Jasmine, picked in the early morning in summer, is the star flower of perfumers
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“In terms of perfume ... it's just happiness! "
Vanessa Aubert looked at the young jasmine seedlings she planted early in the year.
The young woman, originally from the north of France, has changed her life.
Gone are the hotels, long live
Jasminum grandiflorum
, the large-flowered jasmine cultivated in the Grasse region, on the Côte d'Azur, for perfumery.
After having unearthed a field on the heights of Fayence, about twenty kilometers from Grasse, on Le Bon Coin, the classifieds site, her husband and she planted a thousand jasmines.
At the beginning of summer, a few flowers appeared before the start of the harvest, in August.
Scented mornings
Vanessa Aubert's reconversion was facilitated by the support of the Fleurs d'Exceptions du Pays de Grasse association, which works to promote the flowers of Grasse, which has become the world capital of perfume thanks to its privileged climate.
"Jasmine loves hot weather, so you just need to water it well to control flowering,"
explains Vanessa Aubert, who envies herself looking forward to this long-awaited first harvest.
"
It will be all white, it will be beautiful every morning!"
"
The flower of
Jasminum grandiflora
opens in the evening, but it is in the early morning that the picking takes place, when the flower gives off the most fragrance.
“Depending on the wind, I think we will be able to flood the whole neighborhood with good smells!
"
The scent is in the petals
Jasmine is, along with the May rose, the most widely cultivated flower in the Grasse region for perfumery.
"Jasmine?
The people of Grasse call it “the flower”, quite simply, ”
explains Charlotte Urbain, communications director at Fragonnard, the famous perfumer who has lived in Grasse for almost 100 years.
It is from their petals that flowers emit their perfumes.
“
Jasmine is like the rose.
These are flowers that have a lot of fragrant flower molecules.
They are magnificent raw materials.
Very expensive, moreover,
”emphasizes Charlotte Urbain.
2,000 picking hours for 1 liter of absolute
What costs the most, besides processing, a chemical process that has modernized over the last century, is harvesting.
"
Everything is done by hand, no mechanized
"
,
recalls Vanessa Aubert, who got his first year exclusive contract with a perfumer, like most farmers in the area.
"
To have a kilo of jasmine, you need flowers!"
In 4 hours, we collect between 1.3 and 2 kilos of jasmine.
»Knowing that it takes around 2,000 hours of picking to obtain a liter of jasmine absolute, the perfume concentrate found in many perfumes and colognes, such as Chanel N ° 5, best-selling fragrance in the world, which contains 10% jasmine.
But synthetic fragrances, obtained without natural flowers, have gained momentum in recent years, to use less cultivable land and to obtain fragrances that are not in your nature.
"Are there any smelly flowers?" »
Flowers that do not smell of rose or jasmine, there are a few. The foul sterculum, for example, a tropical tree, which is also called, and even more clearly, the poo tree. Even if, to be precise, it would smell more like manure. There is also the titan arum, which gives a flower of 3 meters, the largest in the world. We are here more on rotten meat.
But what's the point of stinking? It is the same as for flowers that smell good: attract pollinators, insects, beetles or diptera. The
Scathophaga
, for example, better known as poop flies. All tastes are in nature ! You got it: you don't catch flies with vinegar ...
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Agriculture and Fishing