This paper will describe the importance of odor for woody plant taxonomy …

• Abstract
• Background
• Methods
• Results and discussion
• Conclusion
• Miscellaneous
• References
• Table 1
• Figures

The results of this study illustrate that the odor of bark, sap, flowers, fruit and leaves are important clues that help the Aguaruna to judge the relatedness of trees found in their local environment. In contrast, taste appears to play a minor role. The Aguaruna almost always group trees that have a similar odor as companions. On the other hand, they almost always say that trees with a unique odor have no companions. The utility of odor for judging relatedness is, of course, limited to those trees that have a distinctive odor (slightly less than a third for the Aguaruna). The results suggest a more general ethnobotanical hypothesis that could be tested in other cultural settings. People tend to consider plants with similar odors to be related, but judge plants with a unique odor to have no relatives.

In his classic field guide [16], Gentry mentions odor as an important character for recognizing certain plant families, including many that Aguaruna informants also mentioned. For example Gentry observes that trees in the Burseraceae often have an "incenselike or turpentine-like vegetative odor" [[16], p.299] and that trees in the Lauraceae and Myristicaceae typically have a distinctive "Ranalean odor" due to the presence of aromatic essential oils [[16], p.484,638]. Families that both Gentry and Aguaruna informants note for their distinctive odors include: Annonaceae, Burseraceae, Fabaceae (genus Myroxylon), Lauraceae, Meliaceae, Monimiaceae, Moraceae (genus Pourouma), Myristicaceae, Piperaceae, and Solanaceae. However, the Aguaruna also mentioned some families that Gentry did not. These include the Bixaceae (Bixa), Lecythidaceae (genera Couroupita, Eschweilera and Grias), Melastomataceae, Sterculiaceae (Theobroma) and Ochnaceae (Cespedesia).

Determining the most salient characters of tree taxa for Aguaruna informants is a good first step for approaching the question of how those trees are recognized and identified. While analyzing the data presented in this paper, I had an idea for a follow-up experiment that could shed more light on the question of how the Aguaruna identify trees. The inspiration came partly from Carneiro's [18] classic experiment with the Kuikuru of Brazil, in which he showed a group of men an assortment of leaves he collected from the forest floor in order to elicit identifications of the trees they came from. What follows is a brief outline of the proposed experiment.

The fist step will be selecting a sample of 50 trees representing a variety of families and genera, including trees that informants previously indicated have distinctive odors, such as members of the Annonaceae, Burseraceae, Lauraceae, Meliaceae and Myristicaceae. A few knowledgeable informants will provide an Aguaruna name for each tree in the sample. The second step will involve ten or more key informants. I will cut a piece of bark from each of the 50 study trees and request that each person identify the tree in question, by sniffing it while blindfolded. Thirdly, I will lead each participant through the 50 study trees and request him identify each, using any method he wants. In each case, informants' answers and actions taken while making identifications will be recorded. Finally, I will collect voucher specimens from the fifty trees.