Many orchids are known for their fragrance and this is one of the items that orchid lovers can concentrate on for their collections. It is estimated that about 60% of orchids use scent to attract their pollinators which are searching for nectar as food or pollen. Some orchids even mimic the pheromone of female insects in order to attract the males of the species to try to mate with the flower. Fragrance is used by plants to attract insects, mostly bees and moths and butterflies, in order to pollinate their flowers. In addition to these pollinators, several species of orchids produce scents of rotting meat (as well as flowers that look that way) to attract flies which are their pollinators.

Probably the most famous fragrant orchid is Oncidium Sharry Baby, or Sherry Baby, which smells like milk chocolate. Here’s a link to a picture on the Orchid Forum with a well grown specimen: The Orchid Forum. You can do a search and find them for sale at a number of different vendors. I’ve even seen them at local hardware stores in the orchid sections.

Another group which makes really fragrant orchids is the Cattleya Alliance. One of the best know of these is Rhyncholaelia digbyana an extremely fragrant orchid which has been used extensively in breeding to produce frilly lips in Cattleya hybrids. It has a very attractive fragrance that is somewhat lemony and is produced after the sun goes down as the pollinator is a moth.

A great deal of breeding has been done lately to produce compact or small orchids (fondly called Mini-Catts) which have nice flowers as well as good fragrance. Most of the fragrance comes from the large varieties and most of the color on the small flowers comes from the Sophronitis genus, which has little fragrance since it relies on brightly colored flowers to attract pollinators which are thought to be humming birds.

Bulbophyllum phalaenopsis is the best known of the carrion orchids which attract flies as their pollinators. Look at the picture and you can see how the dark red flowers resemble meat and would attract both by smell and by sight the flies they need to pollinate their flowers.

Fragrance in orchids is achieving new importance and now has been added by many authorities, among them the Japanese Prize International Orchid Show, as a category for judging flowers. Let’s hope that this is the start of a trend that will continue so that we can enjoy the flowers as well as the scent of our orchids.