雙語閱讀:家裡的花花草草也會喊疼呢!

We always think that it’s ok for us to leave our plants unattended during our vacation as we believe that they’ll survive just fine. Plus, plants won’t scream like pets, so they must be okay, right?

我們始終認爲在度假期間讓植物無人看管也無所謂,因爲我們認爲它們自己可以照常生存下去。再說植物也不會像寵物一樣尖叫,所以它們一定還好,難道不是嗎?

A recent study done by a group of scientists at the Tel Aviv University has discovered that some plants will scream in a high frequency when they are undergoing stress.

還真不是。事實上,一項由以色列特拉維夫大學科學家團隊主導的最新研究發現:某些植物在承受壓力時會發出高頻率尖叫。

The research was carried out on tomato plants and tobacco plants by cutting their stems and depriving them of water. A microphone is placed 10cm away from the setup.

在研究中,他們或是切開番茄植株菸草植株的莖部,或是剝奪其水分,同時將一個麥克風放置在距離實驗裝置10釐米的地方

When they started cutting the stems, they found out that the plants started ‘screaming’ between 20 and 100 kilohertz and they believe that this scream is probably meant to warn other plants and organisms nearby.

當他們開始切割莖部時,他們發現植物開始發出在20至100千赫茲之間的“尖叫”,他們相信這種尖叫很可能是爲了警告附近的其他植物和生物

When the tomato plant’s stem was cut, 25 ultrasonic distress sounds were recorded over the course of an hour, and on the other hand, 15 ultrasonic distress sounds were recorded from the tobacco plant.

他們在切開番茄植株的莖部後,在一小時過程記錄到了25次超聲波慘叫聲”。另一方面,從菸草植株實驗中記錄到了15次超聲波“慘叫聲”。

When they deprived the plants of water, the tomato plants recorded even more distress sounds with 35 distress sounds in an hour while the tobacco plants recorded about 11 distress sounds.

當他們剝奪這些植株的水分時,在一個小時內記錄到番茄植株發出了更多的“慘叫聲”:35次,而在菸草植株實驗中記錄到了約11次“慘叫聲”。

The plants also responded differently to different kinds of stress, for example, the tobacco plant gave out a more intense ‘scream’ when they were deprived of water than when their stems were cut. But plants that were in no immediate danger released less than one ultrasonic sound per hour.

除此之外,這些植物對不同壓力的反應也不同,例如,當菸草植物缺水時,發出的尖叫聲比其莖部被割斷時發出的“尖叫”聲更爲強烈。而沒有遭遇即刻危險的植物每小時釋放的超聲波都少於一次。

The group of scientists then said that this changes the way we think of plants as we had always assumed that they are silent, but the thing is their voices are so high-pitched that we just can’t hear them.

科學家團隊對此表示,這改變了我們對植物的看法,因爲我們一直認爲植物是沉默的,但事實是它們發出的聲音很高,甚至於高到我們都聽不到。

Last year, another study has found out that plants feel pain when are touched or plucked and it will, in turn, cause the release of a foul-tasting chemical.

值得一提的是,去年有另一項研究發現:植物在被觸摸或拔除時會感到疼痛,這反過來會促使其釋放出散發惡臭的化學物質