Beautiful flowers

Why do people find flowers beautiful, and why do we like their aroma? If you look at these questions from an evolutionary perspective, it is hard to identify a specific chain of cause and effect.

What would be the evolutionary advantage to flowers for people to find them beautiful and fragrant? Conversely, what would be the evolutionary advantage to our species to perceive flowers in this way?

Unquestionably, we humans love to look at flowers and we love to smell them. We cultivate them, surround ourselves with them, and give them as gifts to the ones we love — entirely because of these qualities that please us so very much.

Is there some non-obvious evolutionary adaptation at work here? Surely somebody must have studied this question before.

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