我們可以從謙卑的花朵中學到很多

我們可以從謙卑的花朵中學到很多

Despite their stunningly intelligent design, flowers occasionally suffer a breakdown. A blossom might get nicked by a stiff breeze or crushed by a falling branch.

盡管花朵有著驚人的智能設計，但它們偶爾也會崩潰。花朵可能會被強風刮傷或被掉落的樹枝壓碎。

A passing animal may check to see if it's worth eating. Sometimes, a stalk may become so overburdened with blossoms, it collapses.

路過的動物可能會看看它是否值得吃。有時，花梗會因過度開花而折斷。

But, according to a new study published in the journal New Phytologist, a plant's real genius may be how it weathers loss and hardship — and ultimately perseveres. In fact, they're so good at it, that you may be surprised just how often flowers break down.

但是，根據(jù)發(fā)表在《新植物學家》雜志上的一項新研究，一種植物真正的天賦可能在于它如何經(jīng)受風霜雨雪，并最終堅持下來。事實上，它們在這方面做得非常好，你可能會驚訝于花多久會凋謝一次。

Don't be fooled by the adorable name. Sweet peas are survivors. (Photo: Daina Varpina/Shutterstock)

Accidents happen, even in the flower world

即使在花卉世界，意外也會發(fā)生

"Mechanical accidents happen to plants fairly often and can, in some cases, stop the plant from being able to attract pollinating insects and so, make seeds," the study's lead author Scott Armbruster, an ecology professor at the University of Portsmouth, explains in a press release.

該研究的第一作者、樸茨茅斯大學的生態(tài)學教授斯科特·阿姆斯特在一份新聞稿中解釋說:“機械事故經(jīng)常發(fā)生在植物身上，在某些情況下會阻止植物吸引傳粉昆蟲，從而產(chǎn)生種子。”

Indeed, a flower's chief aim in life — much like every other living being — is to go forth and multiply. To do that, the researchers note, the sexual organs of flowers and nectar tubes have to be perfectly aligned. That way, when a honeybee comes calling, the flower is perfectly poised to be pollinated.

事實上，一朵花在生命中的主要目的——就像其他所有活著的生物一樣——就是繁衍生息。研究人員指出，要做到這一點，花和花蜜管的性器官必須完全對齊。這樣，當蜜蜂來叫的時候，花朵就做好了授粉的準備。

An injury to a flower can throw a wrench into that relationship. So how does a flower right itself? To find out, Armbruster and his colleague, Nathan Muchhala from the University of Missouri, looked at 23 native and cultivated flower species from several continents.

花的傷害會破壞這種關系。那么一朵花是如何自我調(diào)整的呢?為了找到答案，阿姆斯特和他的同事，來自密蘇里大學的內(nèi)森·穆奇哈拉，觀察了來自幾個大陸的23種本地和栽培花卉。

They found an astoundingly rapid response system to just about any kind of calamity.

他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種應對任何災難的驚人的快速反應系統(tǒng)。

That's not to say all flowers get back on their feet with equal success.

這并不是說所有的花都能重新調(diào)整好，獲得同樣的成功。

The most resilient flowers were snapdragons, orchids and sweet peas — flowers considered bilaterally symmetrical, meaning their left and right sides look alike. When they're knocked out of balance — say by an errant human foot, they move quickly to right the ship. Armbruster and Muchhala noted that the plants did some shuffling of their flowers and, if necessary, even moved an entire stalk laden with flowers to regain their symmetry.

最有彈性的花朵是金魚草、蘭花和香豌豆——這些花被認為是左右對稱的，意思是它們的左右兩邊看起來很像。當它們失去平衡時，比如被一只不正常的人類腳踩到，它們會迅速向右移動。阿姆斯特和穆奇哈拉注意到，這些植物會移動它們的花，如果有必要的話，甚至會移動整個花梗來恢復它們的對稱。

The left and right sides of a snapdragon mirror each other. (Photo: PixHound/Shutterstock)

Snapdragons, orchids and sweet peas bounced back from some egregious injuries. Like a bent or broken stigma. That's the organ that receives the pollen from a bee and its tubes take it deep inside the plant's ovary. The plants managed to reposition a faulty or wayward stigma to ensure a smooth landing for bees.

金魚草、蘭花和香豌豆從一些令人震驚的傷害中恢復過來。像彎曲或折斷的柱頭。這是接收蜜蜂花粉的器官，它的莖把花粉帶到植物的深處。這些植物設法重新安置了一個有缺陷或任性的柱頭，以確保蜜蜂順利著陸。

Aside from whispering sweet come-hithers to bees, plants also have to court the sun in order to grow. That process, called photosynthesis, begins in the leaves. A bent or broken leaf just won't do. Again, Armbruster and Muchhala marveled at how the bilaterally symmetrical plants bent and twisted their healthy leaves to fully bask in the sun's bounty.

除了向蜜蜂低語甜美的引誘者，植物也必須向太陽求愛才能生長。這個過程被稱為光合作用，從葉子開始。一片彎曲或折斷的葉子是不行的。阿姆斯特和穆奇哈拉又一次驚嘆于這種兩邊對稱的植物是如何彎曲和扭曲它們健康的葉子，充分沐浴在陽光下的。

On the other hand, radially symmetrical flowers — those that have identical sections, no matter how you rotate the flower — weren't able to adapt as well. When petunias, buttercups and wild roses took a hit, their stems rarely bounced back.

另一方面，徑向?qū)ΨQ的花——那些有相同部分的花，無論你如何旋轉(zhuǎn)花——也不能適應。當矮牽牛、毛茛和野玫瑰遭受打擊時，它們的莖很少會反彈。

As a radially symmetrical flower, every section of a buttercup looks the same no matter how you twirl it. (Photo: Sunbunny Studio/Shutterstock)

"What we found, in a haphazard sample of plants, was that bilaterally symmetrical flowers were able to use up to four methods of restoring their chances of being pollinated almost to pre-injury levels."

“我們在一份隨機的植物樣本中發(fā)現(xiàn)，雙邊對稱的花朵能夠使用多達四種方法來恢復它們授粉的機會，幾乎恢復到受傷前的水平。”

So, what exactly is the moral for humans who suffer a mechanical breakdown — or the bigger picture for a society hobbled by a pandemic?

那么，對于遭受機械故障的人類來說，道德究竟是什么?對于一個被流行病所困擾的社會來說，更大的愿景是什么?

Indeed, for all the famed fragility of flowers, they know a thing or two about weathering catastrophe. It's a lesson they may even pass on to humans — if we care to listen to the wisdom of flowers.

的確，盡管花卉以脆弱著稱，它們對風化災害還是略知一二的。如果我們留心傾聽花朵的智慧，它們甚至可能將這一經(jīng)驗傳授給人類。