For Roman Kaiser, a fragrance and flavour chemist for whom botany is more than just a hobby, there is no doubt which family of plants holds the greatest fascination: the orchids. The variety and vitality of this most recent, yet most extensive, class of flowering plants almost defies description. Representatives of this family are found in all continents and vegetation zones. Over 25,000 species, subdivided into some 750 genera, are now known to exist. No other plant family has such an aura of mystery about it, and no other seems to offer such a wide variety of form, colour and scent.
This was the conclusion drawn by the author after documenting some 2200 natural species by means of olfactory descriptions and photographs over the last ten years. In about 250 cases, he also investigated the orchid scents by analytical techniques. He is now convinced that the ‘scent diagnoses’ of the other 4000 species of flowering plants rwecorded in his flower scent file all lie within the spectrum covered by the orchid scents.
The aim of this three part book is to give at least an initial impression of this huge variety and, as suggested by the title, to focus on the verbal description and chemical analysis of the scents of a selection of species. Botanical and pollination aspects are also discussed, thus providing a reasonably comprehensive description of the phenomenon of ‘flower scent’. The book, which contains more than 180 colour photographs, adopts an interdisciplinary approach in the hope that readers from many fields perfumers, scientists, orchid enthusiasts, or simply nature lovers-can derive maximum benefit from it.