Why do flowers give off fragrance?

Why do flowers give off fragrance? That is because some flowers give off fragrance because their petals contain oil cells, and these oil cells can secrete various aromatic oil substances. These aromatic substances are called essential oils and are volatile. When the essential oil molecules volatilize, people smell the fragrance.

Because the essential oils contained in the petals of different fragrant flowers have different chemical compositions, the fragrances given off by different kinds of flowers are also different. For example, Michelia alba (white champaca) and jasmine have rich fragrances; orchids and gardenia have a fresh fragrance that spreads all around; roses and osmanthus have strong fragrances; Aglaia odorata and tuberose have deep, full fragrances; wintersweet and narcissus have elegant, light fragrances; Michelia figo (banana shrub) and night-blooming jasmine have sweet fragrances that drift far. Different fragrances cause different reactions in people, and the same flower fragrance is experienced differently by different people; some find it stimulating, while others find it repulsive.

The fragrance people smell is often composed of multiple aromatic compounds. For example, the fragrance of jasmine is composed of more than 80 chemical components; the fragrance of roses is composed of more than 280 compounds. In the fragrance industry, the different fragrances given off by different fragrant flowers are often classified into various fragrance types, such as Michelia alba type, jasmine type, gardenia type, rose type, etc., and petals of different fragrance types are processed and extracted into different types of fragrance materials for use in the cosmetics and food industries.

Among the many flowering plants, in which flower color are fragrant flowers most common? Someone identified more than 4000 flowers of different colors. Among 1265 kinds of white flowers, fragrant flowers accounted for 20%; among 922 kinds of red flowers, fragrant flowers accounted for 17%; among 954 kinds of yellow flowers, fragrant flowers accounted for 14%; among 600 kinds of blue flowers, fragrant flowers accounted for 9%; among 309 kinds of purple flowers, fragrant flowers accounted for 13%. From the above statistical results, it can be seen that white flowers have the highest proportion of fragrant flowers, followed by red flowers and yellow flowers, while blue flowers have the fewest fragrant flowers.