The Valley That Smells Like May

For three weeks in spring, the valley between Kelaat M'Gouna and Boumalne Dadès smells like a perfume counter. The rest of the year it smells like dust.

The Rosa damascena — the Damask rose — was brought to Morocco centuries ago, likely by returning pilgrims from Mecca. It found the Dadès Valley's combination of altitude, irrigation, and hot days followed by cold nights to its liking, and it stayed. Today, the hedgerows of roses lining the irrigation channels of the valley produce roughly 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes of rose petals each year.

The harvest happens in April and May, when the flowers open. It must be done by hand, early in the morning before the heat drives off the volatile oils. Women and children do most of the picking. The petals are collected in baskets and delivered the same day to the distilleries — small cooperatives and larger commercial operations — where they are steam-distilled into rose water and rose essential oil.

The economics are stark. It takes approximately four tonnes of petals to produce one litre of pure rose essential oil. That litre sells for several thousand dollars on the international market. The women who pick the petals earn a daily wage.

Kelaat M'Gouna hosts a rose festival each May — a celebration with music, a parade, and the election of a rose queen. The town's main street is lined with shops selling rose products: rose water, rose cream, rose soap, rose oil in small bottles. The quality varies. The best products come from the cooperatives where the distillation is controlled and the dilution is honest.

Outside of harvest season, the valley is a dry landscape of kasbahs and almond trees. The rose hedgerows are bare green bushes. Nothing suggests what happens when May arrives.