Odd Smelling Plants

H.R. Waller
Date: 1 October, 2008
Time: 1020
Location: Outside Smith on the east side of the building
Weather: nice, sunny, 66 degrees
I have noticed since I came to Oregon a particularly strange smell now and then that I have never experienced before. My family tells me I'm a "supertaster" as I have really sensitive taste buds and can taste things they can't. I also don't like most sauces and intense tasting foods. I'm wondering if that also applies to the sense of smell for me. I finally realized that the thing I've been smelling was a certain type of bush that I've seen around Salem. There is a large row of the plant on the side of Smith in a big, rectangular shape, perfectly manicured and squared off. The bush is short and green and very thick (you can't see air between its web of appendages) and it has little green leaves the size of a flattened penny. The leaves are oblong shaped and have no apperant arrangement pattern. The smell is very hard to describe, to me it's kind of like bitter soup, but I smell it every time I pass that area and once on a walk I smelled it and looked around, and sure enough there was that same type of bush. I would lik to know more about why this plant gives off an odor!