我们可以从谦卑的花朵中学到很多

我们可以从谦卑的花朵中学到很多

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.

尽管花朵有着惊人的智能设计，但它们偶尔也会崩溃。花朵可能会被强风刮伤或被掉落的树枝压碎。

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

路过的动物可能会看看它是否值得吃。有时，花梗会因过度开花而折断。

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，根据发表在《新植物学家》杂志上的一项新研究，一种植物真正的天赋可能在于它如何经受风霜雨雪，并最终坚持下来。事实上，它们在这方面做得非常好，你可能会惊讶于花多久会凋谢一次。

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，意外也会发生

"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.

该研究的第一作者、朴茨茅斯大学的生态学教授斯科特·阿姆斯特在一份新闻稿中解释说:“机械事故经常发生在植物身上，在某些情况下会阻止植物吸引传粉昆虫，从而产生种子。”

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.

事实上，一朵花在生命中的主要目的——就像其他所有活着的生物一样——就是繁衍生息。研究人员指出，要做到这一点，花和花蜜管的性器官必须完全对齐。这样，当蜜蜂来叫的时候，花朵就做好了授粉的准备。

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.

花的伤害会破坏这种关系。那么一朵花是如何自我调整的呢?为了找到答案，阿姆斯特和他的同事，来自密苏里大学的内森·穆奇哈拉，观察了来自几个大陆的23种本地和栽培花卉。

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

他们发现了一种应对任何灾难的惊人的快速反应系统。

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

这并不是说所有的花都能重新调整好，获得同样的成功。

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.

最有弹性的花朵是金鱼草、兰花和香豌豆——这些花被认为是左右对称的，意思是它们的左右两边看起来很像。当它们失去平衡时，比如被一只不正常的人类脚踩到，它们会迅速向右移动。阿姆斯特和穆奇哈拉注意到，这些植物会移动它们的花，如果有必要的话，甚至会移动整个花梗来恢复它们的对称。

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.

金鱼草、兰花和香豌豆从一些令人震惊的伤害中恢复过来。像弯曲或折断的柱头。这是接收蜜蜂花粉的器官，它的茎把花粉带到植物的深处。这些植物设法重新安置了一个有缺陷或任性的柱头，以确保蜜蜂顺利着陆。

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.

除了向蜜蜂低语甜美的引诱者，植物也必须向太阳求爱才能生长。这个过程被称为光合作用，从叶子开始。一片弯曲或折断的叶子是不行的。阿姆斯特和穆奇哈拉又一次惊叹于这种两边对称的植物是如何弯曲和扭曲它们健康的叶子，充分沐浴在阳光下的。

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，径向对称的花——那些有相同部分的花，无论你如何旋转花——也不能适应。当矮牵牛、毛茛和野玫瑰遭受打击时，它们的茎很少会反弹。

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."

“我们在一份随机的植物样本中发现，双边对称的花朵能够使用多达四种方法来恢复它们授粉的机会，几乎恢复到受伤前的水平。”

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，对于遭受机械故障的人类来说，道德究竟是什么?对于一个被流行病所困扰的社会来说，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.

的确，尽管花卉以脆弱著称，它们对风化灾害还是略知一二的。如果我们留心倾听花朵的智慧，它们甚至可能将这一经验传授给人类。