Odor Attracts Seed Dispersers

photograph of green fruit in tree during the day

Biological Strategy

Durian

AskNature Team

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Send Chemical Signals (Odor, Taste, Etc.)

Tastes, odors, and hormones are all chemical signals that can float through the air or water, or be applied to solid surfaces. Chemicals are important for signaling and communication; even humans, with our underdeveloped sense of smell, are influenced by chemicals more than we realize. Chemical signals are often specific to the living system intended to receive them, and are often relatively weak, dispersing upon moving through liquids or gases. To ensure that chemical signals reach their target, living systems create unique chemical signals and methods of dispersal. One example is an orchid that is pollinated by dung beetles, and therefore distributes a dung-smelling aroma to attract them.

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Flowering Plants

Clade Angiosperms (“receptacle seed”): Dandelions, oaks, grasses, cacti, apples

With 416 families containing some 300,000 known species, angiosperms are the most diverse group of plants, and they can be found around the globe in a wide variety of habitats. They are characterized by seeds that grow enclosed in ovaries, which are enclosed in flowers. The floral organs then develop into fruits of myriad kinds and dimensions, from simple seed casings on maples to elaborate fleshy growths like papayas. The oldest flower known from fossils, Montsechia vidalii, appeared during the Jurassic Period 130 million years ago. They are the primary food source for herbivorous animals, which in turn makes them the indirect food source for carnivores as well.

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Ripe fruit of Durio tree species can be detected by potential seed-dispersing animals up to a half mile away due to a pungent odor.

Image: Crux /

Artocarpus; durian fruit

Image: Yun Huang Yong /

The strong smell of ripe durian fruit, which is extremely unpleasant to many human noses, can be detected half a mile from the source, and thus attracts the attention of a great number of animals that eat the fruit and aid in seed dispersal. (Attenborough 1995:25-27)