Walking around the City this time of year brings a peculiar scent to your nostrils. The smell is reminiscent of semen, and it's origin is from the flower of what some of our less-mature locals (read: me) vulgarly refer to as "cum trees."
More precisely, [it's] a Callery Pear, or Pyrus calleryana, a deciduous tree that’s common throughout North America. It blossoms in early spring and produces beautiful, five-petaled white flowers—that smell like semen.
The City streets are full of Callery Pear trees and they are all in bloom right now, saturating the air with the scent of what many identify as chlorine, rotting fish and semen.
The last time New York’s Parks Department conducted a tree census, from 2005 to 2006, there were 63,600 Callery Pears, making it the third-most popular species in the city, after the London Planetree and the Norway Maple.
Check out this interesting article on The Awl for more info on the trees and their declining presence in New York City.
Matt Coneybeare
Editor in Chief
Matt enjoys exploring the City's with his partner and son. He is an avid marathon runner, and spends most of his time eating, running, and working on cool stuff.
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