Fight or flight on the forest floor

The forest floor is a wild bouquet of fungi, lichen, plant life and decay.  The aroma fits the bill. When you walk into a forest, your nose becomes more of a guide than you may think.

One of the first things that people register is the scent of Geosmin, a molecule that humans can sense better than sharks can sense blood in water. For our primal brains, this scent means moisture, water, life.

Geosmin is made by soil bacteria, mostly Streptomyces. The bacteria release it when they form spores, and the soil releases it when it is wet or disturbed. It is the smell of rain on dry earth, and it is the smell of digging.

Other aromas we would find in the forest floor include 1-octen-3-ol, pure fungal essence, a forest mushroom cut in two; and 2-Methylisoborneol which is another aroma associated with water & hanging out with geosmin, it is produced by cyanobacteria.  It's also responsible for cork taint in wine…This aromachemical is not really available to be used in fragrance, though I would!  On top of leaf alcohols and a hundred other aromas we hit a baseline forest scent.

We sort through these scents immediately and automatically. Something unlocks when you expand the scent image in your mind and pull it apart.  You can begin to understand it and place meaning to each part of it. 

Is that what being one with the forest means?

Prey animals do the same sorting, with higher stakes.

A mouse that has never met a cat will freeze at the smell of one. The response is built in.  They have a vasonomeral organ which can take in molecules onto its mucilaginous membrane inside the nasal cavity and elicit a physical response. 

One molecule that will alert certain mammals is 2-phenylethylamine, usually written PEA. It is a simple amine. In 2011, a study led by David Ferrero and Stephen Liberles, at Harvard Medical School, showed it is concentrated in the urine of many carnivores, including bobcat, lion, weasel, and ferrets. 

Read more here

The forest is full of surprises, even when you know it well it can teach you a new lesson.  Being mindful about fragrance means survival for some, but it also instills an appreciation for what makes life truly so beautiful.