Sign up to FREE email alerts from MyLondon - MyNorthLondon News Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

After months of lockdown Londoners have become all the more appreciative of their parks, with local green spaces often packed.

But there's a something strange in the air at the moment, and no, it's not pandemic related.

Many visitors to certain parks will notice a particular smell at this time of year - a strong odour of semen.

As crude as it sounds, the phenomena is well documented especially at this time of year and it's not the fault of weirdos hiding in bushes.

The guilty culprit is actually a tree - the sweet chesnut.

With the scientific name Castanea Sativa, it is found across South East England and is more famous for its fruit, chestnuts, than its smell.



The chestnuts are wrapped in a spiky, green casing and are a traditional part of Christmas dinners.

Their leaves are spear shaped with a distinct saw-tooth edge. The thing to really look out for, especially at this time of year, is the long catkins hanging from the branches.

These are the source of the rather familiar yet unfortunate smell and appear in June and July.

There's more scientific word for the smell - spermatic - which just shows it's not just the perverts that made the connection, the science bods knew what was up too.

(Image: Darren Pepe)

Roy Vikery, a botanist and compiler for Plant Lore, told MyLondon: "I remember being in the Putney area about 25 years ago when chestnut was in flower and being almost embarrassed by the strong smell of semen everywhere."

He described the source of the smell as the tree’s "heavy, sticky pollen" emitted by the catkins.

The author Susan Freinkel has also written about the whiff before.

She wrote: "A blossoming chestnut is beautiful, but the smell is not."

(Image: Darren Pepe)

You won’t find that many sweet chestnuts and their weird smell in Central London as the trees are more common in less built-up areas.

The leafier boroughs in London, on the other hand, don’t get off so lightly.

The London Tree Map provides a helpful tally of most of the capitals trees (seven boroughs did not contribute) which shows the spread of the guilty chestnut.

Enfield beat off all competition to be the borough with the most sweet chestnuts, with 815.

Bromley is the runner-up with 536.

Hounslow and Sutton have 118 and 117 sweet chestnuts respectively, and other boroughs (maybe thankfully for their residents) are trailing further behind.

(Image: london.gov)

This isn’t the only tree with a vaguely semen-like smell.

The accusation is often levelled at the Callery (Bradford) pear as well as the linden tree (also known as the lime tree).

The confusion could stem from the fact they often grow together.

Mr Vickery said: "Sweet chestnut flowers smell of semen; lime flowers do not.

"The two species cannot be easily confused, but when they grow close together, as they do sometimes, people can attribute the smell to the wrong tree."

Like the MyLondon Facebook page To keep up to date with all the latest breaking news, stories and events happening across London, give the MyLondon Facebook page a like. We will provide you with the latest traffic and travel updates, including updates on train and London Underground services, and the roads around the capital. The latest breaking news will be brought straight to your news feed including updates from the police, ambulance and fire brigade. We will also bring you updates from our courts and councils, as well as more lighthearted long reads. We also publish your pictures and videos, so do message us with your stories. Like the My London Facebook page here. You can also follow us on Twitter here and Instagram here.

Is there a story from your area you think MyLondon should be covering? Please get in touch at charlie.jones@reachplc.com