Why do flowers smell nice?

Flowers do not make a nice smell just to smell good. They make scent to call bees, butterflies, and other insects over. These small visitors come to drink the sweet juice inside the flower, called nectar. When an insect lands on a flower, tiny bits of dust called pollen stick to its body.

When the insect flies to another flower, it carries that pollen with it. This is how flowers can make seeds and grow new plants. So the smell is like an invitation that the flower sends to insects.

Not every flower smells the same. Some flowers open at night, and then their smell gets even stronger, because they want to call insects that fly at night. Some flowers smell bad on purpose, just to attract flies.