I'm curious if anyone here is familiar with this plant - perhaps they grow it or have seen/smelled it somewhere or at sometime. The reason I ask is because it is a note listed in Amouage's Opus VI and there is deifnitely a floral element present in the scent that I can't really pin down. I get something kind of vaguely rosey but with a bit of jasmine and violet tones, but it's hard to pick out as there is a strong bay note, strong sandalwood with a slight medicinal aspect, and a pretty strong incense not to mention a dry and dessicated amber accord.
Here's a picture of the plant and flowers:
Here's what I could find out about it on the net:
"Right: Periploca graeca, (Silk Vine), native in southern Europe to Asia Minor. The stems are frost hardy, although leaves are shed in the Autumn, and will grow at least 30 ft. The attractive flowers are dark purple, markedly hairy and appear in mid to late summer. Their scent is considered attractive by some people and unpleasant by others. As with other Asclepiadaceae the seeds within the poisonous yellow fruits have a silken parachute which assists dispersal by the wind. Sap and fruit contain cardiotoxic steroids (cardenolides), some of which have shown activity as anti-cancer agents."
Re: Anyone familiar with periploca (aka: milk broom, silk vine)
I have smelled it before at my father's house. It has purple flowers like stars that grow on the vine. The smell wasn't nice to my nose. It smelled like rotten vegetables to me. I think some people find the smell attractive though.
Re: Anyone familiar with periploca (aka: milk broom, silk vine)
Thanks for the answer purplepig. That's why I love this forum. Who'd have thought I'd get a reply to such an odd question, and so quickly! Rotten vegetables eh? Did it have any specific vegetable odor that you can recall, or just that kind of universal rotted veggie smell?
Also, is there anything fecal in the smell at all? I pick up tiny hints of a fecal note in Opus VI from time to time and it seems different than the usual civet/castoreum note.
Re: Anyone familiar with periploca (aka: milk broom, silk vine)
It's hard to describe and from what I gather it can be different to different people. I suppose it was slightly fecal and it smelled like vegetable water- imagine if you steamed vegetables in the microwave and left the water in a dish for a couple of days- kinda like that.
I will have to check it again next time I go up. It's funny how a note might be off putting at first and then you just can't get enough of it.
Re: Anyone familiar with periploca (aka: milk broom, silk vine)
Anyone else have any experience with this crazy flower?
I'm wondering if anyone else picks up something radically different than purplepig. What I'm really curious about is does it smell the same to everybody, but some people just like the smell and some people dislike the smell, or is it like cilantro where some people have genetic differences that make it taste like soap. Maybe some people smell periploca and it smells like jasmine or something, and then others get the rotten vegetables smell that purplepig mentions. I know that tends to happen with at least one natural material: black currants - some just get cat piss!
Re: Anyone familiar with periploca (aka: milk broom, silk vine)
There's a description from Firmenich - oil is from the roots, not the flowers - 'sweet & gourmand with high proportion of isovanillin - notes vanilla, almond, frangipani' :-
The root oil of Periploca sepium has to my nose (like the Firmenich description) a strong gourmand direction. I'd describe it as a quite weak vanilla-dominated scent with some green, juicy-sweet and very subtle floral aspects. Overall a bit creamy but also a bit dry-dusty-mealy. It's a complex scent for sure, but I don't like it very much. To me it lacks a bit of uniqueness, it's more a weird gourmand melange. In contrast to other vanillin-containing materials, Silk vine oil is not supposed to be prone to discoloration.
