• Question: Why do flowers get a smell

    Asked by issi2001 to Anil, Blanka, Cees, Emma, Mike on 29 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Blanka Sengerova

      Blanka Sengerova answered on 29 Jun 2012:


      The reason why flowers need to smell (generally nicely) is to attract bees and other insects to pollinate them. Pollination involves the carrying of pollen to the stigma of the plant, which results in fertilization and reproduction. The pollen is carried on insects’ bodies. For the same reason the flowers are nice and colourful.

    • Photo: Emma Trantham

      Emma Trantham answered on 2 Jul 2012:


      Did you know lots of research has been done into what makes certain flowers smell nice? This is mostly done to help us make perfumes that also smell nice. Along the way the researchers have found out quite a lot about why and how flowers get a smell (although there’s still lots more to find out).

      -the scent can often be given off by several parts of the same flower
      -all flowers don’t all smell the same amount all of the time. Some can vary how much they smell and scientists hypothesise that’s so they only smell ‘nice’ when the insect they want to pollinate them is around. There’s no point wasting resources and energy during the day to smell nice if the main insect that helps you reproduce is a moth that only comes out at night!
      -the scent of most flowers reduces massively after it has been pollinated – it doesn’t need to attract insects any more

Comments