What’s that smell?

When we think of flowers, we usually think of the colorful petals and sweet scents that attract pollinators such as bees or butterflies. But some plants smell truly terrible. Their stinking flowers, leaves, and roots attract a different set of pollinators, including flies and beetles.

White blossoms smell like rotting fish to attract flies as pollinators.

can grow up to 16 in

(41 cm) across.

The flowers, which bloom in spring and summer, smell like rotting meat to draw in insects.

The star-shaped, hairy flower looks like a dead animal.

The flower spike may resemble an attractive pineapple but can smell awful.

This strange-looking flower traps insects until they are all covered in pollen.

Smelly durian is banned on public transportation in Singapore. This plant's brightly colored blooms, leaves, and stem smell like foxes.

Some flowers, such as those of the Bradford pear and carrion plant, smell like rotting meat to attract flies. Jackal food plants spend most of their lives underground, sending up a poo-scented flower to be pollinated by dung beetles. The crown imperial plant, however, uses smell to scare off would-be attackers, such as squirrels and deer, by stinking like a fox or a skunk. Not only do plants such as the dead horse arum and titan arum smell awful, but they also heat up their flowers to help this smell spread farther. The vomitlike smells of the durian fruit and female ginkgo nut are so strong that both are banned from many public places in some countries.

Fleshy, smelly nuts of the female tree contain edible seeds that do not smell.

The roots of valerian smell like sweaty socks.

This giant flower spike can heat up to 90 °F (32 °C).

The petal-like bract is flesh-colored, hairy, and smells like rotting meat.

Also known as the corpse flower, titan arum has a red flower sheath that looks and smells like rotting meat.

The delicate leaves of this plant smell like roast beef when bruised or damaged.

The titan arum makes the tallest flower spike in the world, but it flowers only once every two to seven years in the Sumatran rain forest in Indonesia.

10 ft (3 m) tall