Do you know how many species of flowering plants there are? There are a quarter of a million -- at least those are the ones we know about -- a quarter of a million species of flowering plants. And flowers are a real bugger. They're really difficult for plants to produce. They take an enormous amount of energy and a lot of resources. Why would they go to that bother? And the answer of course, like so many things in the world, is sex. I know what's on your mind when you're looking at these pictures. And the reason that sexual reproduction is so important -- there are lots of other things that plants can do to reproduce. You can take cuttings; they can sort of have sex with themselves; they can pollinate themselves. But they really need to spread their genes to mix with other genes so that they can adapt to environmental niches. Evolution works that way.
各位知道 有多少中开花植物么? 有25万种 -- 至少我们知道的有这么多 -- 25万中开花植物。 而花儿是个麻烦事。 让植物繁育真的很困难。 需要大量的经历和许多资源。 为什么会这么困扰? 当然,答案是,与世界上许多其他事物一样, 性别。 我知道当你们看这些图片时脑子里想的是什么。 有性繁殖如此重要的原因 -- 植物有许多其他的方式可以繁殖。 可以用插枝的方式; 可以同株两性繁殖; 可以同株授粉。 但它们确实需要传播它们的基因 与其他的基因混合, 这样它们才能生态环境。 进化就是这样起作用的。
Now the way that plants transmit that information is through pollen. Some of you may have seen some of these pictures before. As I say, every home should have a scanning electron microscope to be able to see these. And there is as many different kinds of pollen as there are flowering plants. And that's actually rather useful for forensics and so on. Most pollen that causes hay fever for us is from plants that use the wind to disseminate the pollen, and that's a very inefficient process, which is why it gets up our noses so much. Because you have to chuck out masses and masses of it, hoping that your sex cells, your male sex cells, which are held within the pollen, will somehow reach another flower just by chance. So all the grasses, which means all of the cereal crops, and most of the trees have wind-borne pollen. But most species actually use insects to do their bidding, and that's more intelligent in a way, because the pollen, they don't need so much of it. The insects and other species can take the pollen, transfer it directly to where it's required.
现在植物传递这一信息的途径 是通过花粉。 你们中一些人或许之前已经看过这些图片了。 如我所说,每个家庭都应该有一台能看到这些的 扫描电子显微镜。 有多少种开花植物就有 多少种不同类型的花粉。 这其实对法医学等等相当有用。 多数会导致我们患上花粉热的花粉 来自那些用风来 传播花粉的植物。 这是个非常低效的过程, 这也是为什么花粉总是跑到我们鼻子里。 因为其中大多数都被抛弃了, 希望包含在花粉中的生殖细胞, 雄性生殖细胞, 将能碰巧落到另一朵花上。 所有的草,这意味着所有的谷物, 和多数的树 靠风传播花粉。 但多数物种 实际上利用昆虫来完成这一过程。 在某种程度上这更聪明, 因为这样并不需要太多的花粉。 昆虫 和其他物种 能携带花粉, 把花粉直接转移到所需的地方去。
So we're aware, obviously, of the relationship between insects and plants. There's a symbiotic relationship there, whether it's flies or birds or bees, they're getting something in return, and that something in return is generally nectar. Sometimes that symbiosis has led to wonderful adaptations -- the hummingbird hawk-moth is beautiful in its adaptation. The plant gets something, and the hawk-moth spreads the pollen somewhere else. Plants have evolved to create little landing strips here and there for bees that might have lost their way. There are markings on many plants that look like other insects. These are the anthers of a lily, cleverly done so that when the unsuspecting insect lands on it, the anther flips up and whops it on the back with a great load of pollen that it then goes to another plant with. And there's an orchid that might look to you as if it's got jaws, and in a way, it has; it forces the insect to crawl out, getting covered in pollen that it takes somewhere else.
很显然,我们注意到 昆虫和植物之间的关系。 这是种共生关系, 无论是鸟儿还是蜜蜂, 它们都能获得回报, 通常获得的回报是花蜜。 有时这种共生关系 会导致奇妙的适应性变化 -- 红裙小天蛾 是一种漂亮的适应性变化。 植物也有收获, 天峨把花粉传播到了别处。 植物进化了, 到处创建降落的跑道, 蜜蜂可能迷失其中。 许多植物上有些 看起来像是其他昆虫的标记。 这些是百合花的花粉囊, 非常巧妙, 因此当毫不知情的昆虫 落于其上时, 花粉囊翻转过来,带着许多花粉 击打在昆虫背部,这样就能跟随昆虫到其他植物那里。 有一种兰花 看起来就像是有下颚一般。 在某种程度上说,它的确有;它强迫昆虫爬过, 沾上花粉,并把花粉带往别的地方。
Orchids: there are 20,000, at least, species of orchids -- amazingly, amazingly diverse. And they get up to all sorts of tricks. They have to try and attract pollinators to do their bidding. This orchid, known as Darwin's orchid, because it's one that he studied and made a wonderful prediction when he saw it -- you can see that there's a very long nectar tube that descends down from the orchid. And basically what the insect has to do -- we're in the middle of the flower -- it has to stick its little proboscis right into the middle of that and all the way down that nectar tube to get to the nectar. And Darwin said, looking at this flower, "I guess something has coevolved with this." And sure enough, there's the insect. And I mean, normally it kind of rolls it away, but in its erect form, that's what it looks like.
兰花:至少有 两万种兰花 -- 多种多样的令人惊异。 它们有各种各样的花招。 它们必须尝试并吸引传粉者 帮助它们完成这一过程。 这株兰花,被称为达尔文的兰花, 因为它曾被达尔文研究 并在他看到这种兰花时给出了奇妙的预测。 可以看到这儿有一个很长的花蜜管 从兰花中 垂下来。 基本上昆虫不得不做的是 -- 我们来到花的当中 -- 它把口器刺入 中间的部分 一路向下知道花蜜管 以得到花蜜。 达尔文说,看看这花, “我猜测有些事物与其共同进化了。” 毫无疑问, 就是昆虫。 我的意思时,通常它都是卷起来的, 但它伸直以后, 看起来是这样的。
Now you can imagine that if nectar is such a valuable thing and expensive for the plant to produce and it attracts lots of pollinators, then, just as in human sex, people might start to deceive. They might say, "I've got a bit of nectar. Do you want to come and get it?" Now this is a plant. This is a plant here that insects in South Africa just love, and they've evolved with a long proboscis to get the nectar at the bottom. And this is the mimic. So this is a plant that is mimicking the first plant. And here is the long-probosced fly that has not gotten any nectar from the mimic, because the mimic doesn't give it any nectar. It thought it would get some. So not only has the fly not got the nectar from the mimic plant, it's also -- if you look very closely just at the head end, you can see that it's got a bit of pollen that it would be transmitting to another plant, if only some botanist hadn't come along and stuck it to a blue piece of card.
现在可以想象一下 如果花蜜 这种如此有价值的事物 对植物来说生产的代价高昂 且又能吸引许多传粉者, 那么,就如在人类性行为中的那样, 人们或许开始相互欺骗。 它们或许会说,“我有些花蜜。你想来拿点么?” 这是一株植物。 这株植物 为南非的昆虫所喜爱。 它们进化出了长长的口器 以获取底部的花蜜。 这是个模仿者。 这种植物在模仿前一种植物。 有一种长着长口器的苍蝇 它从假冒者那儿没得到任何花蜜。 因为假冒者没给它任何花蜜。它以为它可以得到。 因此,不但苍蝇 没有从假冒的植物那儿得到花蜜, 而且 -- 如果你非常近的观察 头的顶部,你会看到那儿有些花粉 这些花粉将被传播到其他植株上, 如果没有植物学家过来 把它粘到一张蓝色卡片上的话。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Now deceit carries on through the plant kingdom. This flower with its black dots: they might look like black dots to us, but if I tell you, to a male insect of the right species, that looks like two females who are really, really hot to trot. (Laughter) And when the insect gets there and lands on it, dousing itself in pollen, of course, that it's going to take to another plant, if you look at the every-home-should-have-one scanning electron microscope picture, you can see that there are actually some patterning there, which is three-dimensional. So it probably even feels good for the insect, as well as looking good.
这种谎言遍布整个植物王国。 这朵带着黑点的花: 它们或许在我们看来像是黑点, 但我告诉各位,对适当物种的雄性昆虫来说, 这看起来像是两只 非常非常性感的雌性。 (笑声) 当昆虫到达并在上面着陆时, 把自己浸入花粉中,当然,这些花粉将会被它带到其他植物那儿去, 如果看看每个家庭都应该有的扫描电子显微镜的图像, 就能看到实际上那儿有些图案, 三维的图案。 它甚至能让昆虫感觉到舒服, 看起来也不错。
And these electron microscope pictures -- here's one of an orchid mimicking an insect -- you can see that different parts of the structure have different colors and different textures to our eye, have very, very different textures to what an insect might perceive. And this one is evolved to mimic a glossy metallic surface you see on some beetles. And under the scanning electron microscope, you can see the surface there -- really quite different from the other surfaces we looked at. Sometimes the whole plant mimics an insect, even to us. I mean, I think that looks like some sort of flying animal or beast. It's a wonderful, amazing thing.
这些电子显微镜图像 -- 这是一朵兰花在伪装成一只昆虫 -- 你能看到对我们的眼睛来说, 结构的不同部分有着不同的色彩和不同的纹理, 而昆虫或许能感知到 非常非常不同的纹理。 这种兰花进化至能模仿 在一些甲壳虫身上看到的 有金属光泽的表面。 在扫描电子显微镜下 你能看到这表面 -- 这与我们看过的其他表面非常不同。 有时整个植物会 模仿成一只昆虫,即使我们看来也像是昆虫。 我的意思是,我认为这看起来像是某种飞行的动物或野兽。 是美妙而神奇的事物。
This one's clever. It's called obsidian. I think of it as insidium sometimes. To the right species of bee, this looks like another very aggressive bee, and it goes and bonks it on the head lots and lots of times to try and drive it away, and, of course, covers itself with pollen. The other thing it does is that this plant mimics another orchid that has a wonderful store of food for insects. And this one doesn't have anything for them. So it's deceiving on two levels -- fabulous.
这是它的聪明之处。它被称为黑曜石。 我认为它有时是狡猾的。 对于适合种类的蜜蜂来说, 这看起来像是另一只非常有侵略性的蜜蜂, 它会飞过来用头撞击它许多许多次,试着赶走它, 当然,这会让它沾上花粉。 它做的另一件事是 这种植物模仿成另一种 富含昆虫喜爱的 食物的兰花。 但其实什么也没有。 因此它在两个层面上进行欺骗 -- 真难以置信。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Here we see ylang ylang, the component of many perfumes. I actually smelt someone with some on earlier. And the flowers don't really have to be that gaudy. They're sending out a fantastic array of scent to any insect that'll have it. This one doesn't smell so good. This is a flower that really, really smells pretty nasty and is designed, again, evolved, to look like carrion. So flies love this. They fly in and they pollinate. This, which is helicodiceros, is also known as dead horse arum. I don't know what a dead horse actually smells like, but this one probably smells pretty much like it. It's really horrible. And blowflies just can't help themselves. They fly into this thing, and they fly all the way down it. They lay their eggs in it, thinking it's a nice bit of carrion, and not realizing that there's no food for the eggs, that the eggs are going to die, but the plant, meanwhile, has benefited, because the bristles release and the flies disappear to pollinate the next flower -- fantastic.
我们看到的是依兰, 有浓烈香味的部分。 实际上我之前闻到过。 这些花实际上没有必要这么艳丽。 它们散发出奇妙的香味 吸引任何有兴趣的昆虫。 这朵花闻起来不怎么样。 这朵花 实际上闻起来非常难闻 再提一次,这是进化而来, 它看起来像是腐肉。 因此苍蝇喜欢它。 苍蝇飞进去并帮其授粉。 这是白星海芋, 也被称作死马海芋。 我不知道死马闻起来什么味儿, 但这朵花或许闻起来非常像。 实在太可怕了。 绿头蝇情不自禁。 飞入其中, 一路飞入其中。 在上面产卵, 认为这是块很不错的腐肉, 没有意识到这儿可没有卵的食物,这些卵会死在这儿, 但同时这株植物会受益, 因为硬毛松开 苍蝇消失了, 授粉至另一朵花 -- 太奇妙了。
Here's arum, arum maculatum, "lords and ladies," or "cuckoo-pint" in this country. I photographed this thing last week in Dorset. This thing heats up by about 15 degrees above ambient temperature -- amazing. And if you look down into it, there's this sort of dam past the spadix, flies get attracted by the heat -- which is boiling off volatile chemicals, little midges -- and they get trapped underneath in this container. They drink this fabulous nectar and then they're all a bit sticky. At night they get covered in pollen, which showers down over them, and then the bristles that we saw above, they sort of wilt and allow all these midges out, covered in pollen -- fabulous thing.
这是海芋植物,欧海芋, 斑叶阿若母,在这个国家称为延龄草。 我上周在多塞特拍摄的这个。 这家伙加热升温 比环境温度大约高15度 -- 不可思议。 如果看看它内部, 肉穗后面是个有点像大坝的东西, 苍蝇为热量所吸引 -- 这是种沸腾的挥发性化学物质,小虫 -- 它们被困在这一容器下面。 它们痛饮甜美的花蜜 接着都变得有点黏糊糊的。 在夜里它们被花粉覆盖, 由它们上面喷洒而下, 然后我们在上面看到的硬毛 变得枯萎让这些浑身花粉的小虫得以逃出 -- 真是难以置信。
Now if you think that's fabulous, this is one of my great favorites. This is the philodendron selloum. For anyone here from Brazil, you'll know about this plant. This is the most amazing thing. That sort of phallic bit there is about a foot long. And it does something that no other plant that I know of does, and that is that when it flowers -- that's the spadix in the middle there -- for a period of about two days, it metabolizes in a way which is rather similar to mammals. So instead of having starch, which is the food of plants, it takes something rather similar to brown fat and burns it at such a rate that it's burning fat, metabolizing, about the rate of a small cat. And that's twice the energy output, weight for weight, than a hummingbird -- absolutely astonishing. This thing does something else which is unusual. Not only will it raise itself to 115 Fahrenheit, 43 or 44 degrees Centigrade, for two days, but it keeps constant temperature. There's a thermoregulation mechanism in there that keeps constant temperature. "Now why does it do this," I hear you ask. Now wouldn't you know it, there's some beetles that just love to make love at that temperature. And they get inside, and they get it all on. (Laughter) And the plant showers them with pollen, and off they go and pollinate. And what a wonderful thing it is.
如果你认为这是难以置信的,这一个是我的最爱。 这是春羽蔓绿绒。 在座从巴西来的人,应该都知道这种植物。 这是最神奇的事物。 它的雄蕊 有大约一英尺长。 它有一种 据我所知没任何其他植物拥有的能力, 当它盛开时 -- 这是在中间的肉穗 -- 大约两天时间, 它产生了某种程度的代谢变化 有些类似哺乳动物。 并没拥有淀粉, 这是植物的食物, 它拥有十分类似褐色脂肪的东西 以燃烧脂肪的速度 燃烧它,进行代谢, 大约以一只小猫的速度进行。 按体重比,是蜂鸟的能量输出的 两倍 -- 绝对惊人。 它还做了些不寻常的事。 不仅是它将升温至155华氏度, 43或44摄氏度,两天, 而且它将保持恒温。 其中有一个温度调节机制 用于保持恒温。 为什么要这么做?我听到你们问。 目前你们还不知道, 有些甲壳虫就喜欢在这一温度下交配。 它们钻进去,沾满花粉。 (笑声) 植物在它们身上撒满花粉, 让它们离开,去授粉。 这是多么奇妙的事情啊。
Now most pollinators that we think about are insects, but actually in the tropics, many birds and butterflies pollinate. And many of the tropical flowers are red, and that's because butterflies and birds see similarly to us, we think, and can see the color red very well. But if you look at the spectrum, birds and us, we see red, green and blue and see that spectrum. Insects see green, blue and ultraviolet, and they see various shades of ultraviolet. So there's something that goes on off the end there. "And wouldn't it be great if we could somehow see what that is," I hear you ask. Well yes we can. So what is an insect seeing? Last week I took these pictures of rock rose, helianthemum, in Dorset. These are little yellow flowers like we all see, little yellow flowers all over the place. And this is what it looks like with visible light. This is what it looks like if you take out the red. Most bees don't perceive red. And then I put some ultraviolet filters on my camera and took a very, very long exposure with the particular frequencies of ultraviolet light and this is what I got. And that's a real fantastic bull's eye.
现在我们认为 大多数传粉者是昆虫, 但实际上在热带地区, 许多鸟类和蝴蝶也进行传粉。 许多热带的花朵是红色的, 这是因为蝴蝶和鸟类 与我们相似,我们认为, 能非常好的看到红色。 但如果你看看光谱, 鸟类和我们,我们看到红色,绿色和蓝色 看到这一光谱。 昆虫看到绿色,蓝色和紫外线, 它们能看到各种明暗的紫外线。 在这后面还有些色彩。 “如果我们能看到那些颜色难道不好吗,”我听到你们问。 是的,我们能看到。 那么昆虫看到的是什么? 上周我拍了这些沙漠座莲的照片, 半日花属,在多塞特。 正如我们所看到的,这是些小黄花, 到处都是这种小黄花。 在可见光下它看起来是这样的。 如果去除红色看起来是这样。 多数蜜蜂无法感知红色。 接着我在我的镜头前放上紫外线滤镜 在紫外线特定的频率下 长时间的曝光, 就得到了这张照片。 这像是个真实的奇妙的靶心。
Now we don't know exactly what a bee sees, any more than you know what I'm seeing when I call this red. We can't know what's going on in -- let alone an insect's -- another human being's mind. But the contrast will look something like that, so standing out a lot from the background. Here's another little flower -- different range of ultraviolet frequencies, different filters to match the pollinators. And that's the sort of thing that it would be seeing. Just in case you think that all yellow flowers have this property -- no flower was damaged in the process of this shot; it was just attached to the tripod, not killed -- then under ultraviolet light, look at that. And that could be the basis of a sunscreen because sunscreens work by absorbing ultraviolet light. So maybe the chemical in that would be useful.
现在我们不知道 蜜蜂到底看到的是什么, 当我称之为红色时, 你们知道我在看什么。 我们无法知道其中发生了什么,不管是昆虫, 还是其他人类的脑中。 但对比度看起来大概是这样。 从背景中突显出来。 这是另一种小花 -- 位于不同的紫外线频率区间, 不同的滤镜 来匹配不同的传粉者。 它看起来大概是这样。 为了避免你们认为 所有黄色的花都有这一属性 -- 在拍摄的过程中没有损伤花朵; 只是把它贴在三脚架上, 没有摘下来 -- 在紫外光下, 看看这个。 这能作为防晒霜的基础, 因为防晒霜是通过吸收紫外光来起作用的。 因此或许其中的化学物质有些用处。
Finally, there's one of evening primrose that Bjorn Rorslett from Norway sent me -- fantastic hidden pattern. And I love the idea of something hidden. I think there's something poetic here, that these pictures taken with ultraviolet filter, the main use of that filter is for astronomers to take pictures of Venus -- actually the clouds of Venus. That's the main use of that filter. Venus, of course, is the god of love and fertility, which is the flower story. And just as flowers spend a lot of effort trying to get pollinators to do their bidding, they've also somehow managed to persuade us to plant great fields full of them and give them to each other at times of birth and death, and particularly at marriage, which, when you think of it, is the moment that encapsulates the transfer of genetic material from one organism to another.
最后,这是一朵夜来香 是挪威的Bjorn Rorslett发给我的 -- 奇妙的隐藏模式。 我喜欢这种隐藏的方式。 我觉得这很有诗意。 这些照片是用紫外线滤镜拍摄的, 这种滤镜的主要用途是 天文学家用来拍摄金星 -- 实际上是金星上的云层。 这是这种滤镜的主要用途。 当然,金星是爱与生育之神, 这是花的物语。 正如花朵们花了这么多精力 尝试吸引传粉者接受它们的邀请, 不知何故,它们也成功地让我们相信其中含有丰富内涵 我们在出生和逝世时 相互送出花朵, 尤其是婚礼时, 当你想到它时, 就在这一刻内 基因物质从 迁移一个有机体到另一个。
Thank you very much.
非常感谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)