我们终于知晓了树的秘密

 “I am vertical¹/But I would rather be horizontal,” wrote Sylvia Plath, meditating² on the consequences of a treelike existence. A team of researchers from the Vienna University of Technology recently announced another perspective on arboreal³ repose⁴. Using sophisticated laser scanners they created images of trees during the night, when their metabolic⁵ processes slow down, and found that their branches had perceptibly drooped⁶. They had “gone to sleep”, in the team’s words.

“I am vertical/But I would rather be horizontal（我是直立的/但我宁愿自己是水平的），”思考了像树一样的生存状态是什么样子之后，西尔维娅?普拉思(Sylvia Plath)这样写道。维也纳科技大学(Vienna University of Technology)的一个研究小组最近宣布了一种看待树木的睡眠的新角度。他们通过精密的激光扫描仪，对夜晚的树木成像，发现夜间新陈代谢过程放慢时，这些树木的的枝条明显下垂。用这个小组的话来说，这些树“睡着了”。

It is hardly a revelation: if your fluid pressure is reduced, you sag⁷. What’s more interesting is the researchers’ language and their resorting to the ancient metaphor⁸ of “sleep”. Finding analogies between the physical forms and processes of trees and our own vertical life seems to be compulsive, a habit that goes back through Plath to the Romantic poets and beyond. We anthropomorphise them in a directly corporeal⁹ way. We talk of limbs and crowns and trunks. When a tree is felled we see a body, severed¹⁰ from its earthly roots and killed. Our empathy is understandable, and helps the world seem a more joined-up place, but it does a huge and damaging injustice¹¹ to the tree world.

这很难让人感到惊讶：如果流体压力降低，形体就会松弛下来。更有趣的是研究者们的用语和他们对“睡眠”这个古老的比喻的运用。我们似乎总是情不自禁地将树的外在形态和生理过程与我们自身的直立生存状态相类比，这个习惯可以从普拉思一直回溯到浪漫主义诗人及其他人。我们用一种直接的形体化方式将它们拟人化。我们会说树枝（肢），树冠和树干。当一棵树被砍倒的时候，我们看到的是一具躯体被斩断、杀害，与地下的根系分离。我们的同情是可以理解的，并且有助于让这个世界显得更像一个整体，但这对树的世界是一种巨大的的不公和伤害。

我们终于知晓了树的秘密

Vegetal existence is defined by immobility. Plants are rooted to the spot, which means they cannot escape predators¹² or pursue sexual partners. To compensate¹³ they have evolved a modular structure and a range of senses and communication channels which far exceeds our own, and which includes sensitivity to magnetism¹⁴, static electricity, low frequency sound waves and ultraviolet light. New understanding of plants’ abilities (and intelligence: they can learn, remember and change their behaviour as a result) means that they are beginning to be afforded the status of autonomous¹⁵ beings.

植物性的存在是用不可移动性来定义的。植物扎根于一个地方，这意味着它们无法躲开掠食者或者追寻配偶。为了弥补这一劣势，它们进化出了一种模块化的结构和一系列远超我们人类的感官和沟通渠道，包括对磁力、静电、低频声波和紫外线的敏感性。我们对植物的能力（和智力：它们能够学习、记忆并从而改变自己的行为）的新理解意味着，它们开始被赋予拥有自主性的生物的身份。

Plants were regarded as no more than the furniture of the planet — useful, decorative¹⁶, even indispensable; but essentially¹⁷ passive. Their growing existential stature¹⁸ means that we will have to rethink notions of “the natural order”.

过去，人们认为植物不过是地球上的家具——实用、好看，甚至不可或缺，但本质上依然是被动的。它们的存在身份的不断提高，意味着我们必须重新思考“自然秩序”的概念。

Even their reproductive strategies suggest inventiveness and opportunism, not rigid¹⁹ genetic²⁰ scripts. A modular structure means plants have no irreplaceable organs and are usually able to regenerate²¹ even when nine-tenths of their living tissue has been destroyed. In the months after the Great Storm of October 1987, while doomsayers were announcing the ruination of the landscapes of southern England, I found a legion of trees unfazed by horizontality. Oaks and hornbeams were sending up new shoots all along their prostrate²² “bodies”; black poplars and beeches²³ had aspiring²⁴ new trunks climbing out of their upturned root-plates.

甚至连它们的繁殖策略都表现出创造力和投机性，而非严格依照基因的安排。模块化结构意味着植物没有不可替换的器官，即便90%的活体组织被破坏，也通常能够重生。在1987年10月大风暴(the Great Storm of October 1987)后，尽管灾难预言者宣布英格兰南部的地貌遭遇了灭顶之灾，我仍发现了很多在水平状态下也处变不惊的树。橡树和鹅耳枥倒伏的“躯体”上都抽出了新枝；黑杨和山毛榉朝上的根盘上都长出了欣欣向荣的新树干。

A few years ago I went to see what is probably the oldest tree in Europe, the Great Yew²⁵ at Fortingall in Perthshire. Its previous immense size (20 people could have joined hands around it in the 18th century) and likely age (between 4,000 and 5,000 years) mean that it suffered in the past from souvenir hunters. The response of the authorities has been to put the hapless veteran in an iron cage, and to saw its branches back. This gives it the look of a specimen²⁶ in a freak show, but has also emasculated it.

几年前，我造访了很可能是欧洲最古老的一棵树：苏格兰珀思郡(Perthshire)福廷格尔(Fortingall)的大紫杉(the Great Yew)。这棵树身巨大的古树（在18世纪需要20个人才能合抱，据估计有4000到5000岁树龄）在过去受到猎奇者的侵扰。当局的应对之法是把这棵倒霉的老树关进了铁笼子里，锯掉一些枝条。这不仅让它看起来像是怪物展上的展品，同时还让它失去了“男子气概”。

Last year, the Fortingall yew, a male tree, called on some ancient genes²⁷ and transitioned, producing two female berries in the autumn.

这棵紫杉原本是一棵雄树，去年，它发动了一些古老的基因，转变了性别，在秋天长出了两个雌树才长的浆果。

We tend, trapped perhaps in the values of our own time and species, to regard trees as individuals. But they are inextricably social beings. Under the ground all trees are supported by symbiotic²⁸ fungal partners. The tree supplies the fungus²⁹ with sugars, the fungus extracts minerals from the soil and filters them into the trees’ roots. The complexity³⁰ of this networking is only now being uncovered. It looks as if the fungal network connects all the trees in a wood regardless of species.

或许受限于我们所属时代和物种的价值观，我们倾向于把树当成个体。但它们是紧密相连的社会生物。在地下，所有的树都得到了共生的真菌伙伴的支持。这些树给真菌提供糖分，而真菌则从土壤中抽取矿物质并使其渗入树的根部。这种网络的复杂性直到最近才被揭示出来。看起来，真菌的网络不分种类地把一片树林里的所有树木连接了起来。

Using radioactive carbon markers, scientists have found that the fungi³¹ (or some distributed group intelligence) transfer food from evergreens³² to deciduous³³ species in the winter and vice³⁴ versa in the summer. The fungal network also acts as a conduit for sharing information about water availability and attacks by predatory insects, to the extent that it has been nicknamed “the wood-wide-web”.

通过放射性碳标记，科学家们发现，（堪称某种分布式群体智慧的）真菌会在冬季把食物从常绿树种传送到落叶树种，而在夏天则反过来。真菌网络还发挥着传播信息的作用，将有关水源和掠食性昆虫攻击的信息广而告之，以至于得到了“木维网”(wood-wide-web)的外号。

A similar chemical chattering³⁵ (it is hard not to use human analogies) happens above ground. When the leaves of trees such as oaks and willows³⁶ are attacked by insects, they are prompted to produce more bitter-tasting tannins. More remarkably³⁷, they also produce airborne pheromones which encourage the leaves on other parts of the tree to up their tannin before they too are attacked. Over the great stretches of evolutionary³⁸ time, other species have learnt to hack³⁹ these vaporous signals, so that in a seeming contradiction of selfish-gene theory, many individuals of several species benefit from the original tree’s defence mechanism⁴⁰.

在地上，类似的化学“交谈”（很难不用人类的行为来比喻）也在发生。如果橡树或者柳树的叶子被昆虫啃食，它们会分泌更多苦味的单宁酸。更不同寻常的是，它们也会产生通过空气传播的信息素，促进其他部位的叶子增加单宁酸含量，以免也遭到啃食。在进化的长河中，其他物种学会了截获这些气体信号，因此多个物种的许多个体，都能受益于最初遭到啃食的那棵树的防御机制——这似乎与“自私的基因”理论不符。

I cannot see how we can hope to find a place for ourselves in the Earth’s web of life without using the allusive⁴¹ power of our language to explore trees’ dialects of form and pattern and chemical messaging. But we must not smother⁴² their gift to us of different models of being alive. As Samuel Coleridge, great lover of plants, wrote that “everything has a life of its own, and?that we are all One Life.”

如果不使用人类语言中暗喻的力量，去探索树木的形态、模式和化学信息传递的独有语言，我不知道人类如何能够在地球的生命网络中，为自己寻找一个立足之地。但我们绝不应扼杀它们对我们的馈赠，那就是不同的存在模式。就如钟爱植物的诗人塞缪尔?柯勒律治(Samuel Coleridge)所写的，“万物都有自己的生命，我们共有一个生命(everything has a life of its own, and?that we are all One Life)。”

1 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

2 meditating   

a.沉思的，冥想的

参考例句：

• They were meditating revenge. 他们在谋划进行报复。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics. 这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

3 arboreal   

adj.树栖的；树的

参考例句：

• Man was evolved from an ancestor that was probably arboreal.人大概是从住在树上的祖先进化而来的。
• Koala is an arboreal Australian marsupial.考拉是一种澳大利亚树栖有袋动物。

4 repose   

v.(使)休息；n.安息

参考例句：

• Don't disturb her repose.不要打扰她休息。
• Her mouth seemed always to be smiling,even in repose.她的嘴角似乎总是挂着微笑，即使在睡眠时也是这样。

5 metabolic   

adj.新陈代谢的

参考例句：

• Impressive metabolic alternations have been undergone during embryogenesis.在胚胎发生期间经历了深刻的代谢变化。
• A number of intoxicants are associated with metabolic acidosis.许多毒性物质可引起代谢性酸中毒。

6 drooped   

弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Her eyelids drooped as if she were on the verge of sleep. 她眼睑低垂好像快要睡着的样子。
• The flowers drooped in the heat of the sun. 花儿晒蔫了。

7 sag   

v.下垂，下跌，消沉；n.下垂，下跌，凹陷，[航海]随风漂流

参考例句：

• The shelf was beginning to sag beneath the weight of the books upon it.书架在书的重压下渐渐下弯。
• We need to do something about the sag.我们须把下沉的地方修整一下。

8 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

9 corporeal   

adj.肉体的，身体的；物质的

参考例句：

• The body is the corporeal habitation of the soul.身体为灵魂之有形寓所。
• He is very religious;corporeal world has little interest for him.他虔信宗教，对物质上的享受不感兴趣。

10 severed   

v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂

参考例句：

• The doctor said I'd severed a vessel in my leg. 医生说我割断了腿上的一根血管。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We have severed diplomatic relations with that country. 我们与那个国家断绝了外交关系。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

12 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

14 magnetism   

n.磁性，吸引力，磁学

参考例句：

• We know about magnetism by the way magnets act.我们通过磁铁的作用知道磁性是怎么一回事。
• His success showed his magnetism of courage and devotion.他的成功表现了他的胆量和热诚的魅力。

15 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

16 decorative   

adj.装饰的，可作装饰的

参考例句：

• This ware is suitable for decorative purpose but unsuitable for utility.这种器皿中看不中用。
• The style is ornate and highly decorative.这种风格很华丽，而且装饰效果很好。

17 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

18 stature   

n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材

参考例句：

• He is five feet five inches in stature.他身高5英尺5英寸。
• The dress models are tall of stature.时装模特儿的身材都较高。

19 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

20 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

21 regenerate   

vt.使恢复，使新生；vi.恢复，再生；adj.恢复的

参考例句：

• Their aim is to regenerate British industry.他们的目的是复兴英国的工业。
• Although it is not easy,you have the power to regenerate your life.尽管这不容易，但你有使生活重获新生的能力。

22 prostrate   

v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的

参考例句：

• She was prostrate on the floor.她俯卧在地板上。
• The Yankees had the South prostrate and they intended to keep It'so.北方佬已经使南方屈服了,他们还打算继续下去。

23 beeches   

n.山毛榉( beech的名词复数 )；山毛榉木材

参考例句：

• The beeches, oaks and chestnuts all belong to the same family. 山毛榉树、橡树和栗子树属于同科树种。 来自互联网
• There are many beeches in this wood. 这片树林里有许多山毛榉。 来自互联网

24 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
• He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句

25 yew   

n.紫杉属树木

参考例句：

• The leaves of yew trees are poisonous to cattle.紫杉树叶会令牛中毒。
• All parts of the yew tree are poisonous,including the berries.紫杉的各个部分都有毒，包括浆果。

26 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

27 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

28 symbiotic   

adj.共栖的，共生的

参考例句：

• Racing has always had a symbiotic relationship with betting.赛马总是与赌博相挂钩。
• Engineering completely new symbiotic relationship is obviously not an imminent possibility.筹划完全新的共生关系显然是可能性不大。

29 fungus   

n.真菌，真菌类植物

参考例句：

• Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
• This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。

30 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

31 fungi   

n.真菌，霉菌

参考例句：

• Students practice to apply the study of genetics to multicellular plants and fungi.学生们练习把基因学应用到多细胞植物和真菌中。
• The lawn was covered with fungi.草地上到处都是蘑菇。

32 evergreens   

n.常青树，常绿植物，万年青( evergreen的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The leaves of evergreens are often shaped like needles. 常绿植物的叶常是针形的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The pine, cedar and spruce are evergreens. 松树、雪松、云杉都是常绿的树。 来自辞典例句

33 deciduous   

adj.非永久的；短暂的；脱落的；落叶的

参考例句：

• Overgrown deciduous shrubs can be cut back at this time of year.过于繁茂的落叶灌木可以在每年的这个时候修剪。
• Deciduous trees shed their leaves in autumn.落叶树木在秋天落叶。

34 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

35 chattering   

n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The teacher told the children to stop chattering in class. 老师叫孩子们在课堂上不要叽叽喳喳讲话。
• I was so cold that my teeth were chattering. 我冷得牙齿直打战。

36 willows   

n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木

参考例句：

• The willows along the river bank look very beautiful. 河岸边的柳树很美。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Willows are planted on both sides of the streets. 街道两侧种着柳树。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

37 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

38 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

39 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

40 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

41 allusive   

adj.暗示的；引用典故的

参考例句：

• Allusive speech is characterized by allusions.含沙射影的演讲以指桑骂槐为特征。
• Her allusive style is difficult to follow.她引经据典的风格晦涩难懂。

42 smother   

vt./vi.使窒息；抑制；闷死；n.浓烟；窒息

参考例句：

• They tried to smother the flames with a damp blanket.他们试图用一条湿毯子去灭火。
• We tried to smother our laughter.我们强忍住笑。