Mayflower

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Mayflower is the blossom of trailing arbutus, Epigaea repens, a low creeping evergreen of North American woodland. The note is a soft, sweet floral with a green edge and a powdery, faintly woody floor. It is quiet rather than loud. Perfumery uses it to suggest early spring woodland, not a bouquet.

Scent Profile

Floral is the only claim the sources share. Agoratopia calls it 'a delicate and sweet floral fragrance note'. Two botanical sources call the flower very fragrant but name no character at all. Powdery and green come from one line in that same trade description: 'a soft, slightly green scent profile that carries subtle powdery and woody undertones'. Neither could be checked against a second source, so both carry spreads of about 0.18. Warm_spice rests on one sentence in a field guide: 'Flowers are very fragrant with a pleasant, spicy scent.' It is the only character word any botanical source gives, so it is kept, but low and with a 0.20 spread. Dry_woody is the 'woody undertones' half of the single trade line. White_floral is held down on purpose. The flower is pale pink to nearly white, but that is its colour, and no source calls the smell indolic or white-floral. Sweet_vanillic is the 'sweet' in 'delicate and sweet floral', which is floral sweetness, not vanilla.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~5h lasting

Family Floral

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

Epigaea repens grows in acid woodland soil across eastern North America and flowers in early spring. Minnesota Wildflowers lists its other common names as Mayflower and Ground Laurel. Wikipedia records flowers that are 'pale pink to nearly white and very fragrant, about 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) across when expanded, and borne in clusters at the ends of the branches'. The plant is not distilled at commercial scale. A Mayflower note in a finished perfume is therefore an accord built to match the flower, not an extract of it. One retailer sells a 'Mayflower Essential Oil' assembled from bellflower, lilac, jasmine, lily of the valley and rose hip over musk and amber, and labels it 'Inspired by: Wild Bluebell'. That product tells you how loosely the trade uses the name. It is not evidence about the plant.

Usage in Perfumery

Attested in 12 Fragrantica perfumes and none on Parfumo, so this is a small note. It sits in the heart. The one trade source that describes it pairs it with woody, citrus and musky materials. Use it where a light spring floral is wanted without the weight of rose or jasmine.