Challenge 12: Find some coconut flowers

Points available: 2

About the challenge

On a sunny day find some gorse flowers and smell them.

Did you know that those incredible yellow flowers smell of coconut? On a warm days the fragrance is intoxicating.

Go for a walk across amongst Dartmoor's tors and look for the gorse bushes that create a patchwork across the common land. Then very carefully take a gentle sniff of a golden bloom.

Helpful tips

Can you find any other surprising plants that smell of unusual things throughout the year? What about Sweet Violets in spring which smell of parma violet sweets or Pineapple mayweed along path edges?

More information

Although they smell great to us these incredible scents have evolved to attract pollinators such as bees! Not all flowers smell nice though- the worlds biggest flowers - the Rafflesia - smell of rotting flesh to attract carrion flies to pollinate them.

According to plant lore “When kissing's out of fashion, the gorse is out of bloom”