Siberian Rhododendron

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Berry-topped green oil from a Siberian alpine shrub. Lychee and wine over leaf and wood.

Scent Profile

Fruity is the one thing three independent readings agree on. Eden Botanicals sells it on 'distinct fruity top notes' and calls the 'unique, fruity/berry top note' the reason natural perfumers buy it. Two customers name the same fruit without prompting: 'Stunning resemblance to Japanese drink "Salty Lychee"' and 'Fruity lychee and salty electrolytes'. The supplier then gives a chemical reason for it, 4-phenyl-2-butanone, a raspberry-ketone relative. Green is the body: 'a green, woody/leafy, wine-like body note'. Floral comes from the second producer, Ecosibir, whose whole odour description is 'a pleasant flower scent', and from the fact that its distillation charge includes flowers. Dry_woody is the 'woody/leafy' half of the same body phrase. Boozy is 'wine-like', which the supplier states outright and which no other rhododendron source says. Below the naming line: aromatic_herbal for the leaf-oil character shared with the genus, mineral for the 'salty electrolytes' and 'metallic' readings, tropical for the lychee specifically, aquatic_ozonic for 'great natural freshness', and cooling_mentholic and amber_resinous held low but non-zero because the genus carries both and nobody said this species lacks them.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeHeart · ~5h lasting

Family Fruity, Green & Aromatic

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

Origin

Steam-distilled essential oil of Rhododendron adamsii Rehder, a different species from the published rhododendron note (Rhododendron anthopogon, Nepal). It grows wild in the Sayan Mountains of southern Siberia and northern Mongolia, at 5,000 to 6,500 feet, and near Lake Baikal. Eden Botanicals says 'leaves and young stems are manually harvested and carried down from the mountains for distillation'. A second Siberian producer, Ecosibir, gives the charge as 'flowers and twigs with leaves', so the plant part is not settled across suppliers. The berry character has a named chemical cause: the oil 'contains 4-phenyl-2-butanone, the structure of which is similar to that of the so-called raspberry ketone'. The species is rare, vulnerable and under regional protection.

Usage in Perfumery

A natural-perfumery material rather than a commodity oil. Eden Botanicals says the fruity top note 'is prized by natural perfumers' and frames it as what sets R. adamsii apart from the common Himalayan rhododendron oil. Two small specialist suppliers sell it. No large house lists it. Attested in 8 Fragrantica perfumes and no Parfumo entries.