Spikenard

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.  There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.  Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said,  Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?  (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)  Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.  You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."

- John 12:1-8 

from Wikipedia:

Spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi)

also called nard, nardin, and muskroot

is a flowering plant of the Valerian family

that grows in the Himalayas of Nepal, China, and India.

The plant grows to about 1 m in height

and has pink, bell-shaped flowers.

It is found in the altitude

of about 3000–5000 meters.

Spikenard rhizomes

(underground stems)

can be

crushed

and distilled

into an intensely aromatic

amber-colored essential oil,

which is very thick in consistency.

Nard oil is used as a perfume,

an incense, a sedative,

and an herbal medicine said to fight

insomnia, birth difficulties,

and other minor ailments.

The scent of spikenard attracts cats,

a strange phenomenon in itself

from the New Testament:

An anointing oil used

to prepare Jesus’ body

by a woman who perfumed him

with expense and honor

the cause of men’s grousing

about waste and the poor

and turning the mind away

from the obvious costly outpouring and

crushing

medicine so their other ailments

might find healing

and they might be as cats to nard

attracted to an intensely aromatic God

a strange  phenomenon in itself