“Why do flowers smell?

Answer 1

Smell, is the tiny chemical signals given off by anything.

Flowers are adverts, which have large colourful displays to attract a certain creature to them. but since they are in competition, they use all the weapons in the book, and this includes shape, colour and smell. Flowers in the desert smell of rotting flesh to attract flies to them. Water based plants give off unpleasent smells, to distinguish them selves from medow flowers, with similar shape and colours.

the chemical signal of some flowers imitate the attracting smells of mating insects, but most scent is a long range weapon, to get potential pollenators within visual range.

Answer 2

The scents given off by many flowers serve to attract their pollinators, just as their coloured petals do. Experiments confirmed that many classes of pollinators have a keen sense of smell. Their preferences vary from pollinator to pollinator, as does their colour vision, and the scents given off by the flowers reflect these differences. As a result, we can often identify a flower by its scent alone. And so can many pollinators.

Indeed, in some orchids that rely exclusively on one insect species for pollution, the scent is so diagnostic that one, and only one, species of insect will visit each species of orchid. The discrimination is solely on scent. A one-to-one pollinator specificity is found in several members of the genera , Stanhopea and Gongora in Central America, and Drakaea in Australia. In most of these orchid species, artificial pollination of one species with pollen from another will produce perfectly viable hybrid offspring, but this rarely, if ever, occurs in nature.

A number of flowers attract flies by imitating the colour and smell of rotting flesh. For example, the Rafflesia arnoldii is a tropical parasitic flowering plant with the largest flowers in the world.

Answer 3

Flowers don't smell. People with nose has sense that allow us to smell flowers and other stuff.

Answer 4

That's a great question!

I agree with the last answer - the smell is to attract the bees.

Answer 5

To attract insects to them, who will pick up pollen and fertilise other plants of the same species.
The ultimate 'flower' is fruit, which encourages animals to eat it so that they will 'deposit' the seeds elsewhere, and the species continues.

Answer 6

They have no noses, hence cannot smell.

They are fragrant, so YOU can smell them. Presumably, the intent is to attract creatures that aid in fertilization and propagation of the species.

Answer 7

To attract pollinating insects.
No pollination - no flowers.

Answer 8

To attract.

Answer 9

to attract bees - silly!

Answer 10

Cos they can't use deodorant!