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Scents of flowers are usually made of mixtures of hundreds (or even thousands) of volatile compounds, normally emitted from flowers to attract pollinators. Different varieties of the same plant may emit a completely different array of compounds (Vainstein et al., 2001). Not only the presence or absence of an individual component might affect a particular flower scent, at times the same compound might have an agreeable or disagreeable scent depending on its concentration. Most of the research in flower scent has been aimed at elucidating the chemical structures of key scent components and in attempting their chemical synthesis for use in the perfumery and cosmetics industries. Despite the vast number of chemical structures involved, the large majority of scent compounds are biosynthesized by a surprisingly small number of metabolic pathways. These metabolic pathways are often ubiquitous, and specialization has developed through small but important modifications of ancestral genes and pathways (Pichersky and Gang, 2000).

Salinity is an escalating problem in agriculture worldwide (Szabolics, 1989; Hamdy, 1996; Choukr-Allah, 1996). The use of recycled and saline waters to replace fresh water in agriculture contributes, among other factors, to the aggravation of salinity problems. Most crop plants are sensitive to salinity and poorly equipped to cope with salt stress without suffering from impaired growth and development, and even injury (Lauchli and Epstein, 1990; Maas, 1990). The adverse effects of salinity cause considerable reduction in yields, far below the economic threshold of most crops in present use. It can be stated quite confidently that the prevalent future environment of agricultural crops will be much more saline than today. Therefore, improving salt resistance of crop plants is of major interest in agricultural research. Halophytes are the ultimate candidates to serve as a genetic source for this purpose.