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Asked by anon-218611 to johnpaterson on 16 Jun 2019.
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John Paterson answered on 16 Jun 2019:
Good question, we think that flowers mainly smell different to attract different kinds of pollinators. So ones that attract bees tend to be quite nice-smelling, but ones that attract flies tend to smell quite musty. Sometimes ones that attract flies even smell like rotting meat. These are ones that need to attract flies like bluebottles, not hoverflies (hoverflies wouldn’t like the smell of meat).
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Comments
anon-218611 commented on :
Yes don’t Venus fly-traps {as they trap flies} have a stinky stench to attract them too?
johnpaterson commented on :
Yes, you’re completely right. A lot of Venus fly-traps smell like fruit or flowers to attract insects. In general insects are very strongly attracted to smells, more so than a lot of animals.