WHY DO FLOWERS HAVE FRAGRANCE?

WHY DO FLOWERS HAVE FRAGRANCE?

Whenever we pass through a garden during the spring the fragrance of flowers enchants us.Nature has endowed flowers with beauty,attractive colours,nectar and fragrance.Insects and flies get attracted towards the flowers and sit on them.And when they leave they carry with them pollen grains to other flowers

                Flowers have unique smells because they attract different pollinators. For example, bees, moths and butterflies tend to be drawn to sweet smelling flowers, like roses, whereas insects like dung flies are attracted to flowers that smell like rotting meat .

Brightly colored flowers attract different insects to come visit the flower. When insects like bumblebees perch on a flower's petals looking for nectar, pollen gets stuck to their bodies. When insects fly off to another flower, the pollen is transferred to the new flower.

                Plants rely on bees and other insects to reproduce and so they have adapted, over time, to become more attractive to them. Bees are drawn to plants with open or flat tubular flowers with lots of pollen and nectar. A flower's scent can have particular appeal to bees, and its bright colours may lure the bees in.

Different flowers contain  different  oils which give specific fragrance to flowers.As these oils gradually keep on evaporating ,the fragrance of the flowers spreads in the air.In fact, perfumes are prepared from the oils extracted from these flowers.

                There are various processes of making perfumes.In one process,flowers are kept in a pot through which steam steam is passed. The out going steme brings oil with it.This steam is passed through water .Thus the oil brought out by the steam starts floating on the water surface .This is then separated from water.There are other methods of making perfumes also.France produces maximum amount of perfumes.It has been found that one ounce of rose perfume is extracted from 110 kg of rose flowers.Flowers like rose, Raat Ki Rani,pandarus, lavender,jasmine,etc.,are generally use for making perfumes.