On Tue, 09 Jan 2007 18:19:41 -0500, 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.
>
>
>--Lia

Read David Quammen's essay on durian.