Orchis pallens L. - Orchidaceae - pale orchid, **Bleiches Knabenkraut**, Bleiche Ragwurz

"The floral scent is interpreted differently, tending between black elderberry and cat pee." [[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasses_Knabenkraut]]

"This species has the peculiarity to develop a strong cat urine-like odor on drying for herbaria." \\
[Winkler, E., Vollständiges Real-Lexicon der medicinisch-pharmaceutischen Naturgeschichte und Rohwaarenkunde (Vol.2), 1842, 181]

{{:pentan2on_4me4thiol.jpg| 4-methyl-4-mercaptopentan-2-one }} \\ [[http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/data/rw1038251.html  \\ |4-methyl-4-mercaptopentan-2-one]] \\ (4-methyl-4-sulfanylpentan-2-one)

Flowers of O.pallens eminate an extreme non-pleasant scent somewhere in between cassis and tomcat urine, with linalool (15.1%), (E)-β-farnesene (20.5%), (E,E)-α-farnesene (8.0%) and 6-hydroxy-2,6-dimethylocta-2,7-dien-4-one (12.5%) as main components. "... but it took until the mid 1990s to reveal the olfactory secret through the identification of the expected 4-methyl-4-sulfanylpentan-2-one..." - present in traces.\\
[Scent of a vanishing flora, Roman Kaiser, 2011, 183-184 and 392-393]  

{{:orchis_pallens.jpg?600}} \\
Orchis pallens L.; Barla, J.B., Flore illustré de Nice et des Alpes-maritimes. Iconographie des Orchidées, t.43 (1868) \\
[[http://plantgenera.org/species.php?id_species=722621]]


{{http://www.botanische-spaziergaenge.at/Bilder/Lumix_4/P1290560.JPG}} \\
Orchis pallens, Kleinzell südöstl. Ghf.Plattner 2010; author: Rolf Marschner,  
[[http://www.botanische-spaziergaenge.at/viewtopic.php?f=520&t=3001| www.botanische-spaziergaenge.at]]