Lily of The Valley - Lily of The Valley Phenomenon

Lily of The Valley Phenomenon

See also: bourgeonal

The odor of lily of the valley, specifically the ligand bourgeonal, attracts mammal sperm in a dramatic manner. The 2003 discovery of this phenomenon prompted a new wave of research into odor reception, but no evidence was found that the female sex organ has similar odors of any kind. A 2012 study demonstrated instead that at high concentrations, bourgeonal imitated the role of progesterone in stimulating sperm to swim (chemotaxis), a process unrelated to odor reception.

Read more about this topic:  Lily Of The Valley

Famous quotes containing the words lily of the, lily of, lily, valley and/or phenomenon:

    I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
    —Bible: Hebrew The Song of Solomon (l. II, 1)

    It is not growing like a tree
    In bulk, doth make man better be,
    Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
    To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
    A lily of a day
    Is fairer far in May
    Although it fall and die that night;
    It was the plant and flower of light.
    In small proportions we just beauties see,
    And in short measures life may perfect be.
    Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    There has fallen a splendid tear
    From the passion-flower at the gate.
    She is coming, my dove, my dear;
    She is coming, my life, my fate;
    The red rose cries, ‘She is near, she is near;’
    And the white rose weeps, ‘She is late;’
    The larkspur listens, ‘I hear, I hear;’
    And the lily whispers, ‘I wait.’
    Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)

    The wide wonder of Broadway is disconsolate in the daytime; but gaudily glorious at night, with a milling crowd filling sidewalk and roadway, silent, going up, going down, between upstanding banks of brilliant lights, each building braided and embossed with glowing, many-coloured bulbs of man-rayed luminance. A glowing valley of the shadow of life. The strolling crowd went slowly by through the kinematically divine thoroughfare of New York.
    Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)

    What a phenomenon it has been—science fiction, space fiction—exploding out of nowhere, unexpectedly of course, as always happens when the human mind is being forced to expand; this time starwards, galaxy-wise, and who knows where next.
    Doris Lessing (b. 1919)