North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Bruce Hansen" <brucedhansen@sbcglobal.net>]

Lon:

 

Then what is the big deal? One can first smell butyric acid in a high school chemistry lab. Bo biggie!

 

Bruce

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Lon Rombough
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 11:48 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Stinky ginkgo trees gotta go, says pol

FWIW, the main ingredient in gingko fruit that makes the smell is butyric acid, which is also the smell of rancid butter. Years ago, there was a product for beekeepers called "Bee Go" that was used to drive bees out of sections of the hive that were to be removed, and it was mainly butyric acid. I had used that product before I ever encountered gingko fruit, and when I first smelled it, I thought, "why does this smell so familiar?" until it came to me where I'd smelled it before.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
On Dec 15, 2004, at 6:51 PM, list@ginda.us wrote:

It is funny. I ran into a load of gingko fruits this year for the first time. It was a cold day, and they littered the ground under one tree in a row of gingkos. (The others are male, I suppose). I didn't notice any odor, but I'd heard that they smelled bad, so I picked one up and sniffed it. Pheww! Smelled like vomit, and I dropped it right away.

I hadn't noticed the smell out in the open, when most of the fruits were frozen, but after I got in the car, the flesh on my shoes started to defrost, and the odor followed me until I scraped the pulp off of my shoes. I don't know if I'd cut down a mature tree, but I don't think I'll plant a female gingko in my yard, either. And I'll be careful not to step on the fruits, too.