Most delightful fragrance in cacti?

[One Windowsill]

Sorry, I am not sure how to search for this topic to see if it has been covered before.

I was looking up some essential oil contents on Pherobase and noticed that they had two Echinopsis species that looked to be potentially very nice-smelling, E. coronata and E. mamillosa and 12 other genera in total with smelly flowers. So, all of those of you lucky enough to have encountered a lot of flowering cacti, which are your favourite fragrances? Can you describe the smells? Succulents as well, to avoid having to post again.

[tumamoc]

Peniocereus greggii has to be up there at the top of the list. Very sweet, strong fragrance, almost intoxicating. When the flowers bloom, it's quite an event!

[Peterthecactusguy]

Peniocereus greggii has to be up there at the top of the list. Very sweet, strong fragrance, almost intoxicating. When the flowers bloom, it's quite an event!

I haven't smelled a Peniocereus greggi yet, however I have smelled a Sacred Datura (Datura wrightii) and it blooms at a similar time as the P. greggii AND it is reported to smell similar. If this is true than I have to agree that the P. greggii is the best smelling one that I have heard about. Someday I will know for sure, I have a P. greggii that is around 8-10 inches tall!

[One Windowsill]

I have just remembered that 30 years ago I had a Faucaria (tigrina or felina?) that flowered and smelt quite deliciously of bananas.

[daiv]

Faucaria - is not a cactus. Are you just looking for cactus smells or other succulents too? Flies seem to prefer Stapeliads, but they aren't my favorite.

Seriously for cactus flowers, I find that most of them do not smell except for the white, night-flowering species. Of these, they all smell pretty similar to me with a mildly spicy vanilla-ish fragrance.

Epiphyllum, Selenicereus, Hylocereus, Echinopsis, Cereus, Carnegia seem to be the ones that I can think of. I don't think any of the Opuntiads have a smell and don't know that I've ever found a scent on Mammillarias either. Disocactus is another very fragrant - white, night bloomer.

[tumamoc]

Ferocactus cylindraceus, at least the ones north of Tucson, have a very nice scent. Kind of lemony. I was pleasantly surprised.

[Peterthecactusguy]

also, one of my Mamm's smells pretty good, don't remember which one.

[peterb]

Echinocereus viridiflorus has a strong lemony smell. Many of the related ssp and forms do also, but not all.

Discocactus buenekeri has a fantastic smell.

Many cacti have a very mild fragrance that is only apparent when they are flowering on a very warm day.

peterb

[One Windowsill]

daiv, I know that Faucaria is not a cactus (nor is it a Notocactus ), I assume you were so excited by my question that you did not read to the end. Although, technically, I probably should have written "Any other succulents...".

Peniocereus looks as though it should be in that vanilla-scented, night-flowering, white group. Is it pollination by bats for those? I wonder what is attracted by the lemony smells.

Thanks for everything so far, this could determine my next cactus purchase. I don't like vanilla (and most of those are too huge for my windowsill) but the lemony ones sound intriguing.

[daiv]

I assume you were so excited by my question that you did not read to the end.

Must have been! I totally missed that!

[John C]

I would have to go with Discocactus placentiformis. I haven't gotten to smell many cactus flowers that actually smell, but this is by far the best I have yet! Absolutely beautiful! I left it in my room so I could see the flower open without having to walk out to the greenhouse a number of times in the middle of the night, and everytime when I opened my door I was overwhelmed by a VERY strong citrus-y scent. Very much reminded me of my sisters old pink grapefruit or tangerine scented spray. Odd, but that's exactly what it reminded me of.

[anttisepp]

Selenicereus grandiflorus has the most powerful and adorable scent IMHO. The same as good old echinopsis in sensu stricto has but much more stronger. Interesting that flower opens in late evening but fragrance appears only in darkness, 2 hours later.

[jerrytheplater]

Sorry, I am not sure how to search for this topic to see if it has been covered before.

I was looking up some essential oil contents on Pherobase and noticed that they had two Echinopsis species that looked to be potentially very nice-smelling, E. coronata and E. mamillosa and 12 other genera in total with smelly flowers. So, all of those of you lucky enough to have encountered a lot of flowering cacti, which are your favourite fragrances? Can you describe the smells? Succulents as well, to avoid having to post again.

This is a pretty old thread, but I'll add this in. A friend of mine was a perfumer at a local fragrance company. He has since retired. I had an unknown Echinopsis that flowered pretty regularly, this is maybe even 30 years ago. I told Bert about it and he was very interested in borrowing my plant when it was about to flower. He brought it into work and had one of his technicians stay up all night taking air samples periodically as the plant produced fragrance up until the flowers closed the next morning. They had it in a sample chamber that allowed sampling the air without creating any disturbance to the plant. They ran the samples on a Gas Chromatograph to analyze the components of the fragrance. Bert told me that the fragrance was not anything new and fairly unremarkable from his standpoint. He said they ended up taking photos of the flowers and using them on the front cover of their Annual Report! Sad to say, I didn't ask for a copy of the Annual Report, and I don't have the GC results-not that I'd really understand them.

If I remember correctly, the fragrance was very similar to an Easter Lily fragrance. At least to my nose.

[Vingames1]

Haageocereus Versicolor smell very good. Very nice nectar smell

[keith]

Night blooming conophytums like Conophytum ficiforme very strong smell like honey