世界最大最臭花朵盛開 花期只持續48小時!
People line up to get a look (and a whiff) of corpse flowers when they bloom. The rare tropical plant takes nearly a decade to form its first bloom and, when it does, the odor it releases is comparable to rotting flesh. The blooms also only last for a day or two.
在"屍花"開花的時候，人們排隊去看（和聞）這種花。這種罕見的熱帶植物幾乎十年纔開一次花，花散發的味道像是腐爛的肉。而且花期只有一兩天。So, it's incredibly strange that corpse flowers from Missouri to Florida are suddenly blooming all at the same time.
因此，從密蘇里州到佛羅里達州的"屍花"同時開放，還是挺不可思議的。Scientists aren't sure why this phenomenon is happening, but the flowers are releasing their deathly smell in Bloomington, Indiana; Sarasota, Florida; Washington, D.C.; St. Louis and New York, according to The Wall Street Journal.
科學家們不清楚這種現象爲什麼會發生，但是據《華爾街日報》報道，這種花確實在印第安納州的布盧明頓、佛羅里達州的薩拉索塔、華盛頓特區、聖路易斯和紐約散發着臭味。
"A few of us are saying, 'Well, wait a minute, how did six or seven happen all at once?'" Marc Hachadourian, director of the Nolen Greenhouses at the New York Botanical Garden, told the paper.
紐約植物園諾倫溫室主任馬克·哈查多裏安在接受報紙採訪時表示："有的人會說，'再等一等吧，如果6、7朵花同時開放會是什麼樣呢？'"For perspective, the University of Wisconsin-Madison conducted a study and found only 157 corpse flower blooms between 1889 and 2008.
爲了這個觀點，美國威斯康辛大學曼迪遜分校開展了一項研究，發現在1889年到2008年這期間只有157株"屍花"開了花。Having seen what it looks like, the Latin name for the flower makes complete sense: Amorphophallus titanum, which translates to "giant misshapen penis."
看過這種花的樣子之後，它的拉丁學名就完全說得通了--"泰坦魔芋"。The flower is said to share some chemical compounds with Limburger cheese and human feces, creating a miasma that is meant to attract insects to help the plant to pollinate. Descriptions of the smell range from person to person, but the consensus is that it's definitely not pleasant.
據說這種花含有和比利時林堡乾酪以及人類排泄物相同的化學成分，所以可以散發臭氣來吸引昆蟲幫助授粉。對這種味道的描述因人而異，但是總體上有一個共識，那就是：實在不太好聞。Corpse flowers come from the warm and balmy Sumatran rainforests, so blooms this time of year are normal. It's just the simultaneous accounts of blooms that are leading to extreme curiosity.
"屍花"原產於溫暖的蘇門達臘雨林，所以在這個時候開花是正常現象。人們如此驚訝是因爲開花的同步率太高了。Daniel Janzen, a professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Journal that these plants may be flowering together because they're related. If the plants are "cousins" or "siblings," they'd likely mature at the same rate because it's a way for "slowly maturing plants to improve their chances of cross-pollination." Despite each plant being miles and miles apart, their lineage could be keeping them synchronized.
丹尼爾·詹森是賓夕法尼亞大學生物學教授，他在接受《華爾街日報》採訪時表示，這些植物同時開花是因爲它們是相關聯的。如果這些植物是"表親"或者"血親"的話，它們會以相同的速率成熟，因爲這是"成熟緩慢的植物增進交叉授粉機會"的一個方法。雖然這些植物之間相隔數百甚至數千英里，但是它們之間的關聯使得開花的同步率非常之高。We're likely not headed for our own version of "Little Shop of Horrors," but these plants definitely have a secret we'll never know.
我們可能不想讓現實版本的《異形奇花》上演，但是這些植物確實有一些我們不知道的祕密。
