Swell Smells Night flowers use more than color to attract help. Many use strong smells, too. T e Queen of the Night is a desert flower. Like many night bloomers, it has a strong smell. It smells like vanilla. T is flower blooms one night a


year. Its smell fills the desert air. A carpenter bee picks up the scent. T is bee is normally active during


the day. It can’t see very well in the dark. So it follows the smell. It isn’t alone. Other types of bees, bats, and moths follow the smell, too.


Sour Power Flower smells aren’t always sweet. Sometimes, they’re sour. A giant baobab tree is a good example. T e baobab has buds shaped like


bananas. At night, they open. T e edges curl back. Inside each bud is a white flower. Each flower has dozens of stamens coated with pollen. A lemur sniff s the air. It likes the


sour smell. It visits one flower, then another. T e sticky pollen clings to the lemur’s fur. T e lemur moves from one flower


to the next during the night. Each time it moves, it carries along pollen.


20 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER


Big Stink Some night flowers smell like rotten meat. Believe it or not, even this stinky smell can attract pollinators. T e corpse flower is a good example. It smells like something dead. Flies love it! Flies crawl all over each flower.


Pollen sticks to their feet. T en they carry the pollen to the next flower.


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