Page 26 - (DK) Flowers

Perfumed flowers A scent in the night

Try this: smell a honeysuckle’s
flowers during the day and then
Have you ever wondered why flowers smell? The in the evening. You will find that

answer isn’t to please our noses. Instead, flowers use the evening scent is much stronger.
Honeysuckle is pollinated mainly by
smell as a signal. Their scent spreads into the air, where moths. It releases its perfume after
bees and other insects can detect it. The insects fly dark to attract its nighttime visitors.
to where the scent is strongest. This leads them to
the flowers, and to a sugary meal. Most Smelly monster

flowers smell strongest by day, but a few The world’s biggest flower
is the giant Rafflesia. lt grows
release more of their scent at night. up to 31 in (80 cm) across
and attracts flies by smelling
like rotting meat!
Freesia flowers open one
after the other. Each flower
lasts for several days.

Bees are attracted Moths have long tongues
to flowers with a that can reach deep into the
sweet smell and honeysuckle’s tubelike flowers.
Sweet-smelling freesias bright colors.
Freesia flowers produce a rich scent The evening primrose
for many days, which is why they has a strong scent and
are often cut and brought indoors. pale color to guide
Twenty kinds of freesia grow in the Bell-shaped moths toward it.
wild, but many more varieties have flowers Night shift
been specially bred by gardeners.
Many flowers open up during
Calling all bees the day and close at night. The
Grape hyacinths have small, bell -shaped flowers. flowers of evening primrose
They give off a rich scent during the day, work the other way around. As
attracting bees in early spring. Grape hyacinths dusk falls, they open wide and
can often be found in parks and gardens. release their scent to attract moths.
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