Why do flowers smell different?

Lean close to a rose and take a slow sniff. Mmm, sweet and soft. Now sniff a lily, or a sunny yellow daisy. Each one smells different from the rest.

Why don't all flowers smell the same? Why do flowers smell different? Let's find out together.

Each flower makes its smell inside its petals. That smell has a special name. It is called a scent, which means the smell a flower sends out.

The flower lets its scent drift into the air. It floats over the grass and between the leaves. The scent is a call to flying visitors, telling them to come close.

Bees, butterflies and moths follow the scent to the flower. Inside, they find a sweet drink. That drink is their treat for coming.

While a bee drinks, yellow dust sticks to its fuzzy body. This dust is called pollen, which means the powder a flower needs to make seeds.

Off the bee flies to the next flower of the same kind. The pollen rubs off there. Now that flower can make seeds.

Each kind of visitor loves its own favorite smell. Bees love sweet, fresh scents. Moths fly at night, when flowers are hard to see. What kind of scent could help a moth find a flower in the dark?

A strong one! Night flowers like jasmine smell strongest after the sun goes down. Their strong scent floats far through the dark. It leads the moths right to them, and the moths carry their pollen.

So each kind of flower makes its own scent. It calls the visitor that loves that smell best. That is why a rose and a lily smell different.

Scent. Pollen. Each kind of flower makes the scent its own visitors love, so they carry its pollen.

Sleep tight, and may your dreams smell as sweet as a garden full of flowers.