Plain Jane Flowers Smell Real Good
Category:
Floral Musings | Posted:
Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:05 pm
I was researching about floral fragrance for an article for my other blog. Many interesting and new things came up as I looked into the books. Of course, the essential oils are the main components in many flowers that are used in perfume industries. But what I found interesting and what logically seemed correct, yet I had never paid attention to, was this fact: The less conspicuous, less vibrant/white or pale flowers have strong fragrance but the ones that are brightly colored do not invest much in building fragrance. For example, only the yellow and white cultivated freesias have a strong smell. The small white colored jasmine flowers pack a punch in a single drop of their essential oil extract. Tuberoses, Cestrum nocturnum or the "queen of the night" as it is known in India or coral jasmine, all have white colored, strong but pleasant smelling flowers.
It makes sense to me. Flowers use colors and fragrance to attract pollinators. So the ones that have brightly colored flowers are anyways well endowed with features to attract the insects. Why waste more resources?
Then, of course, there are flowers that stink and are called carrion flowers. European Dutchman's pipe (Aristolochia clematitis) is one such plant whose flowers emit a strong, pungent odor that attract insects. These stinkers use deception to attract the scavenging insects which bring about their pollination. Well, to each his own!! In this race to survive, every creature has made the most of whatever circumstances and advantages the wily nature has provided. The more you look at the contrivances and deceptions of the floral world, the more it leaves you amazed and in awe.
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