In article >,
Julia Altshuler > wrote:

> jmcquown wrote:
> Surprising! considering the fruit is sweet
> > and mild tasting. I gather it's sort of a natural defense mechanism (maybe
> > to save it from the monkeys).
>
>
> Generally flowering plants evolve sweet smelling and sweet tasting fruit
> in order to encourage animals to eat them and dispel the seeds. (Or
> rather, that's the way it happens, not that the plant thought out the
> strategy and did it on purpose.) I can't figure out what a sweet taste
> but a putrid smell would work for.


There are flowers that smell rotten. They attract flies to pollinate
them.

Don't know about durian.