Cymbidium goeringii (Rchb.f.) Rchb.f. - syn. Maxillaria goeringii Rchb.f. - Orchidaceae
シュンラン (jap.), 春兰 chun lan (chin.)

Terrestrial plant, native to East Asia (Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan), cultivated; pseudobulbs small, ovoid; leaves 4-7, linear-elliptic, acute, margins fine toothed; inflorescence shorter than the leaves, basal, erect, basally sheathed, 4 -10cm long, usually solitary (to 2-3 flowered); flowers pleasantly fragrant, variable in color, usually yellowish green with purplish brown venation, sometimes olive-green, membranous. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200028610
See also Gerhard Raschun jun.: "Cymbidium goeringii (Rchb.f.) Rchb.f., eine terrestrische Orchidee aus Ostasien"

The pleasant scent, especially of Cymbidium goeringii var.goeringii (widely found in Southern China), is reminescent of lily-of-the-valley, ripe lemons, and methyl cis-(Z)-jasmonate (floral-jasmine like; headspace 1.6%). While the muguet aspect is due to nerolidol (58.0%) and (E,E)-farnesol (11.5%), the fresh-floral odour note reminiscent of ripe lemons and jasmine is mainly caused by methyl cis-(Z)-dehydrojasmonate (1.1%). An herbaceous, aromatic aspect/negative facet of Japanese types of C.goeringii is attributable to 1,2,3-trimethoxy benzene and 1,2,3,5-tetramethoxy benzene.
[R.Kaiser, The scent of orchids: Olfactory and chemical investigations., Basel 1993, 151-152 and 211]
[R.Kaiser, Scent of the Vanishing Flora, Zurich 2011, 15-19 and 228]

 (E)-nerolidol
(E)-nerolidol
(floral green)
 (E,E)-farnesol
(E,E)-farnesol
(floral muguet)
 (1R,2S)-methyl cis-(Z)-dehydrojasmonate
(1R,2S)-methyl cis-(Z)-jasmonate
(+)-epi-methyl jasmonate
 (1R,2S)-methyl cis-(Z)-dehydrojasmonate
(1R,2S)-methyl cis-(Z)-dehydrojasmonate
(ripe-lemon, jasmine)

The absolute configuration of methyl cis-(Z)-dehydrojasmonate was determined by Kitahara et al. as (1R,2S).
[Kitahara, T.; Inoue, M.; Tamogami, S.; Kaiser, R. Tetrahedron 1996, 52, 1487-1492]


Cymbidium goeringii flower (2008), author: Qwert1234 CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikimedia Commons