Why do Some Plants Stink?

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To attract insects for pollination, some plants have adopted a unique strategy. Instead of having sweet smelling flowers, they have ones stinking with rotten smell. This attracts many pollinating flies. The lords and ladies plant emit rotten smell from its spike that sticks out of the top. Flies get attracted by this stinking smell and fall inside the sheath. They pollinate the female flowers with the pollen brought from other plants and are then showered with pollen from this flower. The world's largest flower Rafflesia also attracts insects by it's stinking smell and dark red, brown petals.

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