Monkeyflower

“It appears that the loss of the scent of Monkeyflower was first noticed in Britain in 1909, when a well-known nurseryman asked: 'Is there such a thing now as a common Musk with the old Musk perfume?”
– THE LOST FRAGRANCE OF MUSK, letter published in the journal Nature, 1934

The Musk Monkeyflower (so renowned for its vibrant scent that it was simply referred to as The Common Musk) was imported to Europe from the American west coast, where the sun-yellow flowers, perched on fuzzy, sticky stalks, can be found in meadows or along old dirt roads.

The Monkeyflower was a smash hit in Victorian England, thanks to its rich musk smell. Over nearly a century, it spread from the botanical aristocracy to London street hawkers and countryside cottage windows. But at the turn of the twentieth century, the flower suddenly lost its scent—not just in domesticated plants, but in wild specimens as well. Botanists in North America reported that the uncultivated flowers had also lost their fragrance.

This puzzling mystery was the hottest topic among biology conspiracy theorists for decades, but no explanation was ever found. Eventually, the subject faded into obscurity, along with the flower’s popularity as a houseplant. By then, the flowers had spread into the wild and can sometimes still be found living a quiet life in parts of Europe and New Zealand—perhaps just biding their time before returning to the olfactory stage.