Home › Glossary › Azolla (Water Fern)

Azolla (Water Fern)

Q: Is Azolla (Water Fern) natural or synthetic?

. Extraction: No commercial extraction exists. Azolla is a conceptual note reconstructed entirely from synthetic materials..

GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES / fresh · green · aquatic

Azolla (Water Fern)

Category	GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES
Subcategory	fresh · green · aquatic
Origin
Volatility	Heart Note
Botanical	Azolla spp.
Appearance	Small free-floating aquatic fern with green to reddish fronds, 1-2 cm wide
Odor Strength	Medium
Producing Countries	Tropical and subtropical regions worldwide (Asia, Africa, Americas)
Pyramid	Heart

Pond water left standing in a clay bowl. Green, mineral, faintly sour — the smell of standing freshwater where algae films over the surface.

Scent
The Full Story
Fun Fact
Extraction & Chemistry
In Perfumery

Scent

Damp, vegetal green sitting over a mineral-mud foundation. Less sharp than cut stems, less sweet than water lily. Closer in character to the inside of a greenhouse — humid air, wet soil, chlorophyll.

Evolution over time

Immediately

Sharp green, wet mineral, pond-like freshness

After a few hours

Softens to humid vegetal warmth, duckweed character

After a few days

Faint earthy-clay residue, moss-like drydown

The Full Story

Azolla is not a perfumery raw material in any traditional sense. No essential oil, no absolute, no CO2 extract exists commercially. It belongs to the category of fantasy notes — olfactory impressions reconstructed from synthetic building blocks to carries a specific environment.

The scent concept is aquatic-green with a mineral edge. Think stagnant pond rather than rushing stream: there is a warmth to it, a vegetal density that separates it from cleaner aquatic notes like calone or marine accords. The greenness is closer to crushed duckweed than to cut grass.

In practice, perfumers building an azolla-type accord might layer cis-3-hexenol (fresh leaf green) with dihydromyrcenol (metallic-aquatic) and a trace of geosmin (petrichor, wet earth). The result reads as swampy, humid, alive — useful in compositions that aim for tropical realism rather than abstract freshness.

No Première Peau fragrance currently features this note.

This note in Première Peau. Simili Mirage · Nuit Elastique. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.

Did You Know?

Did you know?

Azolla pinnata can double its biomass in 48 hours under optimal conditions, making it one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth. During the Eocene epoch (~49 million years ago), massive Azolla blooms in the Arctic Ocean are believed to have drawn down atmospheric CO2 enough to trigger global cooling — an event paleoclimatologists call the Azolla Event.

Extraction & Chemistry

Extraction method: No commercial extraction exists. Azolla is a conceptual note reconstructed entirely from synthetic materials.

Molecular Formula	N/A - natural plant material
CAS Number	N/A - natural aquatic plant
Botanical Name	Azolla spp.
IFRA Status	No known restrictions
Synonyms	WATER FERN · MOSQUITO FERN · DUCKWEED FERN
Physical Properties
Odor Strength	Medium
Appearance	Small free-floating aquatic fern with green to reddish fronds, 1-2 cm wide

In Perfumery

Fantasy/concept note. Functions as an environmental modifier in compositions seeking humid, tropical, or aquatic-green textures. Not a standalone material but an accord typically built from cis-3-hexenol, dihydromyrcenol, and earthy molecules like geosmin. Useful in niche compositions exploring wetland or jungle atmospheres. Falls within the broader green-aquatic family.