Morocco

The rose here is Rosa damascena, planted as hedges around small plots in the Dadès and M'Goun valleys south of the High Atlas. The area lies in Tinghir province and covers the communes of Kelâat M'Gouna, Boumalne Dadès, Aït Sedrate Sahel Gharbia, Aït Sedrate Sahel Charkia, Aït Ouassif, Souk Lakhmis and Ighil N'Oumgoun.

In 2011 Morocco recognised the protected designation of origin (AOP) Rose de Kelâat M'Gouna-Dadès. According to the Ouarzazate regional agricultural development office, the province has 1,020 hectares of roses. The 2024 to 2025 season was expected to yield over 4,800 tonnes of flowers, against 3,500 tonnes the year before; about 60 tonnes are exported.

The flowers open in April to May and are picked in the morning. Most are dried or distilled into rose water; a share is extracted into concrete and absolute. The rose fair at Kelâat M'Gouna is held every May; its 60th edition ran from 5 to 8 May 2025.

Rose water and products sold as Moroccan rose on the domestic market are often blended with synthetic fragrance; trade groups in Kelâat M'Gouna have raised the problem of counterfeits and unfair competition.

Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt are the three main sources of bitter orange flower (Citrus aurantium). In Morocco it is grown around Fès and Khemisset, for flower and leaf distillation. The flowers open and are hand-picked from late March to early May.

They are distilled into neroli and orange flower water, or solvent-extracted into orange flower absolute. Leaves and young twigs of the same tree give petitgrain bigarade. Orange flower water is a common ingredient in Moroccan pastry and cooking.

Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) is a true cedar of the genus Cedrus, native to the Middle Atlas and Rif of Morocco and to Algeria. IUCN moved it from Least Concern (1998) to Endangered in 2013, because of logging, overgrazing and dieback during prolonged drought.

Atlas cedarwood oil is distilled mainly from sawdust and wood waste from the timber trade rather than from trees felled for oil. Its main constituents are the himachalenes: a study of Moroccan sawdust found beta-himachalene at 24 to 44% and alpha-himachalene up to about 17%, depending on extraction method. The scent is dry, slightly sweet wood, unlike Virginian or Chinese cedarwood oils, which are rich in cedrol and thujopsene.

Since the oil comes from wood waste, the legal origin of the timber determines how sustainable the oil is.

Moroccan chamomile (Cladanthus mixtus, formerly Ormenis mixta or Ormenis multicaulis) is a wild plant of sandy Atlantic coastal soils. Despite its name it is not in the same genus as German or Roman chamomile, and its oil contains no chamazulene. Composition varies greatly with collection site: Salé samples held 45 to 55% santolina alcohol, Kénitra samples 24 to 48%; other samples are instead rich in hemiterpene esters such as isobutyl angelate.

Blue tansy (Tanacetum annuum) is a Mediterranean annual. Its oil is deep blue from chamazulene, formed from a precursor during distillation. Demand from cosmetics has grown; buyers should ask whether a lot is wild-harvested or cultivated, since lot quality varies.

The two names are easily confused: blue tansy is sometimes sold as Moroccan chamomile. Check the Latin name.

Cistus ladanifer grows wild around Oulmès and in the hills of northern Morocco. Spain is the main producer of both cistus oil and labdanum; Morocco produces smaller amounts. Leaf oil yield in Morocco has been reported at about 0.14%, lower than samples from the northern Mediterranean.

Cistus oil is distilled from leafy twigs; labdanum is the gum resin obtained by boiling twigs in alkaline water, then processed into a resinoid or absolute. The two smell different and should be labelled separately.