scent Carrion flowers Rafflesia titan arum insects pollinators moths bats
Flowers also attract pollinators by scent, though not all flower scents are appealing to humans; a number of flowers are pollinated by insects that are attracted to rotten flesh and have flowers that smell like dead animals. These are often called Carrion flowers, including plants in the genus Rafflesia, and the titan arum. Flowers pollinated by night visitors, including bats and moths, are likely to concentrate on scent to attract pollinators and so most such flowers are white. Some plants pollinated by bats have a sonar-reflecting petal above its flowers, which helps the bat find them, and one species, the cactus Espostoa frutescens, has flowers that are surrounded by an area of sound-absorbent and wooly hairs called the cephalium, which absorbs the bat's ultrasound instead.
