You see a luscious flower in a garden, so you lean over, close your eyes, and take a deep whiff. “Ah,” you think, smiling expectantly, “this is the rich fragrance of—nothing! This flower has no smell at all!”
Not every flower bothers to smell nice. In fact, only about one of every 250 known flower species has a scent. Flowers only create odors to attract animal pollinators. Sound familiar? So, flowers that get pollinated by wind have no fragrance, because they don’t need it. That’s also true of flowers that use tricks, traps, and nonfragrant lures to bring in animals.
Flowers that have a smell usually draw in a certain animal. For example, sweet scents like lilac and lavender lure bees and butterflies. These insects like to eat sweet nectar.
Flower scents also attract another animal: humans. We put such fragrances in soaps, shampoos, and perfumes. They’re even in household cleaners.
