Sarcococca

This is lovely Hywel,a nice shape and so many flowers :o)

Thanks ... It's got a horrible smell :(

Oh do you think so? I love it.

I seem to remember mine in my previous garden had a nice scent , it's your nose Hywel or Bella has sprayed her scent on it Lol x

Lovely looking bush, Hywel! I'm not sure if I have ever seen one but I do know they are valued for their winter perfume!

It’s a fine example Hywel

That is gorgeous Hywel looks really healthy too.

Thank you all :)

I read somewhere that men have different scent receptors to those of women, that's why for example woman can detect a delicate perfume when men detect nothing. Perhaps this is why you don't like the perfume here Hywel.

The ability to smell and taste different things is hereditary Julia, I can't see why men would have evolved different scent receptors. It would not achieve anything.
I can certainly detect a delicate perfume. Some of the flowers on my cacti have the most delicate scent you've ever smelled, and the ones on an Echinopsis will fill the whole garden with a very delicate perfume.

A lovely specimen Hywel.

Thank you ...

Hereditary? I never knew that!

Yes, it's the same as all our characteristics, they are hereditary ... in our chromosomes - height, eye colour, whether we are male or female, etc.
Some people can taste things while others can't.
EG Many people get a peppery taste from Nasturtium leaves. To me they taste like water.
We did an experiment when I was in school, and we were learning about genetics.
The teacher gave us all something called phenol phthalene to taste. (It is a harmless substance) It made some pupils feel sick while to others it was tasteless. I had no taste with it but some others found it vile.
The ability to taste the substance is hereditary.

So, when does it change? Why for example does one child like sprouts and their sibling hate them?

Complicated ... I'll try to remember what I learnt for my A levels (way back in the 60s lol)

It's the same as when siblings have different heights, different hair colour, and eye colour, different blood groups, ... It depends on the genes they inherit, and which of those genes are dominant, and which are recessive.
My brother likes strawberries, he has black hair and brown eyes, my mother was the same.
I on the other hand can't stand the taste or smell of strawberries, I have fair hair and green eyes. I am like my father.

Some cancers are also hereditary, and some forms of arthritis and other illnesses. I have arthritis, like my mother. My brother has none, like our father.

There are blood groups - A, B, AB, and O.
The gene for the group O is dominant over the others, so if a child gets the O gene from one parent, and the A gene from the other parent, that child will have the blood group O - it is dominant.
Later on that child can pass either the O gene or the A gene on to the next generation.

Sometimes a recessive gene will show up several generations down the line, because it has been masked by a dominant gene in the parents, grandparents and great grandparents.
If that recessive gene then meets another recessive gene, that characteristic will show up seemingly 'out of the blue'.

For example - the ability to roll the tongue is hereditary lol. I can't do it but my brother can.
Both our parents could do it, so the gene for being unable to roll the tongue must be recessive, and didn't show up in my parents. I have inherited two recessive genes, so I can't roll my tongue
(not that it bothers me lol)

Another example ... I have a head full of wavy hair and have not gone bald. My brother is the same.
Our father had straight hair and went bald, but his father had a head full of wavy hair and didn't go bald.
The wavy hair and not going bald missed a generation in my father.

It's really complicated though but very interesting.
Have you heard of Gregor Mendel ? He was an abbot in an abbey in Moravia, and he was the first person to do experiments in genetics in the mid 1800s. He used pea seeds. Apparently the seed colour and the state of the seed coat (smooth or wrinkled) is inherited, and he tried to find out why some of those characteristics missed a generation sometimes.
That lead to the discovery of dominant and recessive characteristics.

Wow! That's fascinating! It makes things much clearer. Just goes to show you're never too old to learn something new. Thank you Hywel for the lesson.

I'm glad I didn't bore you lol ... and also glad my memory is still able to recall things from my school days :)

You certainly didn't bore me, and your memory is obviously still very sharp.

I've certainly heard about Mendel & his experiments with marrow fat peas. I believe his results were greatly frowned upon by the Catholic Church in his day & he was told to
' keep quiet', as always with them, too progressive, 'don't rock the boat', so his work was buried away for years. Don't know when it was finally published.

I don't know about the Catholic Church rejecting Mendel's work, but I do know that scientists of the mid 19th century did not accept it at all. It was something to do with fear that it would disprove Darwin's theory of evolution.
His work was rediscovered in 1900.

Very interesting discussion. At age 32 I was diagnosed with pernicious anaemia. I am luckier than my paternal granny from whom I inherited it. I have an injection every 8 weeks. She had iron injected because nothing else worked. None of my siblings have it. I hope I have not passed it on but it can take a few generations to show up again.

I'm sorry to hear you have pernicious anaemia.
I believe the gene that causes it is recessive so you'd have to have two of them in order for it to show up.

Our chromosomes and genes are in pairs - we get one from each parent, but each parent only passes one from each pair to their children, so that every generation ends up with chromosomes in pairs.

Your paternal gran must have had two recessive genes for the anaemia to show up (one from each of her parents)
She passed one to your father, but he must have had a dominant gene from his father, and therefore the pernicious anaemia didn't show up in him.

Your father then passed a recessive gene to you, but since you have pernicious anaemia you must have got two recessive genes - one from each parent.
That means there must have been pernicious anaemia somewhere in your mother's ancestry too ... maybe many generations back.

Your mother could have passed her recessive gene to your siblings as well as you, and they could pass it on to their children. You'd have no way of knowing until somewhere along the line a child would inherit two recessive genes again, and get pernicious anaemia.

Well how fascinating is all that? you must have enjoyed learning to have remembered so much Hywel!! I really hated school except for English literature and art....but I love technology, anything to do with computers and of course gardening ......that's me!

That is impressive Hywel. It is easy to understand too the way you have explained it. Thank you for taking the time to do that. I am going to add that to our family tree if you don't mind. It might help someone make sense of their health in the future.

I also hated school Dottydaisy. Total waste of time lol
but I loved botany and art.

Thank you Sheila. I don't mind you doing that. It would be interesting for anyone looking at it.