Scent-sational or stink-tacular

Depending on the floral type, flowers smell either during the day or at night. Flower scents are messenger substances and are – normally – intended to attract pollinators from afar. For short distance communication flowers use colour to attract pollinators. Did you know that floral scents have existed for a long time? Spectacular findings of flowers enclosed in amber tell us that flowers were scented at least 100 million years ago – this was during the dinosaur era!

The largest individual flowers in the entire plant kingdom can be found on Rafflesias. In extreme cases, they can have a diameter of more than one metre! The flowers are always red-brown in colour - – reminiscent of decaying flesh or excrement - – and smell awful, which attracts flies as pollinators. Interestingly, another plant with huge red-brown individual flowers is also an extreme stinker and is pollinated by flies. It is the so-called Aristolochia (Osterluzei). And: the titanium root (Amorphophallus titanum) of the arum family combines many hundreds of small flowers in a huge red-brown inflorescence and - – hardly surprisingly - – stinks to high heaven!

Giant flowers and stink - that seems to be a principle.
But beware: the “stink” principle is an extremely popular way for plants to attract pollinators. So, it is not surprising that there are stinking flowers in all possible sizes. For example, some species of the orchid group Bulbophyllum have tiny red-brown flowers that stink and are pollinated by tiny flies.