Unlike the fragrant blossoms that attract bees, carrion flowers simulate the odor of a rotting animal carcass and attract carrion beetles and different types of flies, including blowflies, flesh flies, and midges. The stapelia flower, which is shaped like a starfish and grows in Africa, has fine hairs around its petals, perhaps to imitate the appearance of a small dead animal. When the bloom opens it gives off a rotting smell, imitating dead animal meat. The smell attracts flies, which collect pollen before they fly away. Some carrion flowers, such as the European and Brazilian Dutchman’s pipe, lure insects into dark openings that lead to the foul-smelling interior where they become trapped. When the flower “releases” the insect, it is coated with fresh pollen to be taken to a different plant. The lantern stinkhorn, a fungus that releases a feces-like odor, attracts green bottle flies to spread its spores.

• Which flowering plant can you float on?
• Which is the smallest flower in the world?
• What it the largest flower in the world?
• Can you eat flowers?
• Do all flowers close up at night?
• What makes a plant bloom at the right time of year?
• Why are so many flowers brightly colored?
• What is the difference between annual, perennial, and biennial flowers?
• When did the first flowers bloom?
• What are comets?
• What is the difference between a bulb, a corm, and a tuber?
• Are there plants that do not grow from seeds?
• What is the difference between self pollination and cross pollination?
• Does the expression “Open sesame!” have anything to do with sesame seeds?
• How do flowering plants make their seeds?
• Which plant spreads its seeds with the help of children at play?
• Do animals ever carry seeds?
• How do seeds become plants?
• What is a seed?
• Do all plants have flowers?