N/A — no commercial absolute; used as a headspace or fantasy note
Odor Strength
Medium
Producing Countries
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru
Pyramid
Heart
A flower that barely smells. Most alstroemeria cultivars are scentless — bred for colour and vase life, not fragrance. In perfumery, "alstroemeria" is a fantasy note: a perfumer's invention of what this silent, vivid South American flower might say if it spoke.
The commercial flower: nothing. Pick an alstroemeria from a florist's bucket, press your nose into it — you get wet stem, cut-green cellulose, and silence. The rare scented species (A. caryophyllaea and its hybrid 'Sweet Laura') emit a faint, terpenic breath: green, lightly spicy from caryophyllene, with an herbal-ocimene lift that disappears within arm's reach. It reads closer to crushed leaf than to flower. The fantasy accord built by perfumers — sheer, sweet-green, tropical-fruity — bears no chemical relationship to the actual plant's emissions.
Evolution over time
Immediately
Immediately
Nothing. The commercial flower is scentless. A florist bouquet delivers only cut-stem greenness and wet cellulose — botanical silence.
After a few hours
After a few hours
Not applicable for the actual flower. In a fantasy accord reconstruction: the sheer floral-green top (linalool, ocimene) thins out, leaving a faint ester sweetness and a transparent, almost waxy body.
After a few days
After a few days
The accord fades to a clean, abstract floral whisper — skin-like, barely distinguishable from the base musks supporting it. No natural persistence to speak of.
The Full Story
Alstroemeria (family Alstroemeriaceae, ~80 species, endemic to South America) is one of the world's most popular cut flowers. It is also, olfactively, almost mute. Virtually all commercial hybrids produce no detectable fragrance. The flower was bred for longevity in a vase — two weeks, sometimes three — and for the saturated striping on its petals. Scent was never the point.
The Exception
A handful of wild species do produce volatile compounds. Alstroemeria caryophyllaea, native to the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil, emits a single unidentified sesquiterpene. The cultivar 'Sweet Laura', bred from A. caryophyllaea stock, is one of the only commercial alstroemeria with detectable scent. Headspace GC-MS analysis (Aros et al., Journal of Experimental Botany, 2012) identified three major terpenes in its emissions: (E)-caryophyllene, humulene (alpha-caryophyllene), and an ocimene-like compound, with myrcene as a minor component. A 2022 study (Aros, Suazo, Medel & Ubeda, Horticulturae 8(1):65) confirmed that monoterpenes and esters dominate the scented hybrids, with 17–19 volatile organic compounds detected — but even these scented lines produce fragrance only at anthesis, and at levels far below what commercial extraction would require.
In Perfumery: Pure Invention
No essential oil, absolute, or CO2 extract of alstroemeria exists. There is no commercial extraction. When a perfumer lists 'alstroemeria' as a note, they are constructing a fiction — an accord that interprets the flower's visual identity (bright, striped, tropical) into olfactory language. Such accords typically combine sheer floral molecules (linalool, beta-ocimene), light fruity esters, and green qualities (cis-3-hexenol) to produce something airy, sweet-green, and slightly tropical. The result owes nothing to the actual flower's chemistry.
Taxonomy
Despite the common name 'Peruvian lily', Alstroemeria is not a true lily (family Liliaceae). It belongs to Alstroemeriaceae, a small monocot family of four genera and ~254 species. The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus in 1762 after his student Clas Alströmer, a Swedish baron who collected seeds in Cádiz and sent them back to Uppsala.
This note in Première Peau. Nuit Elastique · Rose Monotone. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.
Did You Know?
Did you know?
The genus is named after Clas Alströmer (1736–1794), a Swedish baron and student of Linnaeus, who collected the first seeds from a garden in Cádiz, Spain and mailed them back to Uppsala. Linnaeus described the genus in 1762. Despite the common name 'Peruvian lily', the plant is not related to true lilies (Liliaceae) — it belongs to its own family, Alstroemeriaceae.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: No commercial extraction exists. Alstroemeria flowers produce negligible volatile emissions — most cultivars are entirely scentless. The rare scented genotypes (e.g., cv. 'Sweet Laura') emit detectable terpenes only at anthesis and in quantities far below what any extraction method could yield economically. Headspace capture and GC-MS analysis have been performed for research purposes (Aros et al., J. Exp. Bot. 2012; Aros et al., Horticulturae 2022), but no distillation, enfleurage, or solvent extraction of alstroemeria has ever been commercialised. In perfumery, the note is reconstructed entirely from synthetic and natural materials unrelated to the flower.
Molecular Formula
N/A — headspace analysis shows traces of linalool, limonene, beta-ocimene
CAS Number
N/A — natural flower, no single CAS
Botanical Name
Alstroemeria spp.
IFRA Status
Not applicable — no commercial extract or isolate exists. IFRA restrictions apply only to the individual synthetic components used to construct an alstroemeria fantasy accord.
Synonyms
PERUVIAN LILY · LILY OF THE INCAS
Physical Properties
Odor Strength
Medium
Appearance
N/A — no commercial absolute; used as a headspace or fantasy note
In Perfumery
Fantasy note. Alstroemeria has no extractable fragrance and no commercial raw material. When it appears in a fragrance pyramid, it is a constructed accord — the perfumer's translation of visual qualities (vivid colour, tropical origin, freshness) into scent. The accord typically occupies a heart-note position, providing sheer floral lift without weight. Likely construction materials include linalool (for transparent floral body), beta-ocimene (green-herbal lift), light fruity esters, and traces of cis-3-hexenol (cut-green realism). The goal is airiness — a note that reads 'bright flower' without anchoring the composition in any identifiable species. Functional role: modifier and blender. An alstroemeria accord smooths transitions between citrus top notes and heavier floral hearts. It occupies the same structural niche as fantasy peony or freesia accords — decorative, diffusive, disposable. No confirmed presence in the current Première Peau collection.
