Scientists have found evidence that plants can actually hear the buzz of passing bees and produce sweeter nectar in response to entice the flying insects in. And flowers are technically their "ears".

科学家们发现，有证据表明植物确实能听到路过的蜜蜂发出的嗡嗡声，并会释放出更甜的花蜜来吸引昆虫。严格来说，花是它们的“耳朵”。

Based on observations of evening primroses (Oenothera drummondii), the team behind the new study discovered that within minutes of sensing the sound waves of nearby bee wings through flower petals, the concentration of the sugar in the plant's nectar was increased by an average of 20 percent.

通过对一种晚上开花的报春花[海边月见草（一种原产于美国大西洋海岸与墨西哥湾海岸的植物）]的观察，这项研究的团队发现，报春花通过花瓣感应到了附近蜜蜂翅膀震动的声波，在几分钟内，植物花蜜中的糖份浓度平均增加了20%。

The flowers even seemed able to tune out irrelevant background noises, such as the wind.

这些花甚至可以排除周围无关的噪音，比如风。

This capability could well give some plants an evolutionary advantage, say the scientists, maximising their chances of spreading pollen.

科学家们说，这种能力很可能使一些植物在进化上更具优势，有更多传播花粉的机会。

"Our results document for the first time that plants can rapidly respond to pollinator sounds in an ecologically relevant way," write the researchers from Tel-Aviv University in Israel.

以色列特拉维夫大学的研究人员写道：“实验结果首次证明了植物能够以一种生态的方式快速对传粉者的声音做出回应。”

The scientists went into the experiments with a hypothesis in place: that plants can indeed pick up the vibrations of sound waves, and that this might be part of the reason many plants' flowers are bowl shaped, to better trap the sounds.

在实验中，科学家们提出了一个假设：植物确实能够接收到声波，而为了更好地捕捉声音，所以大部分植物的花成碗状。

Across several experiments involving more than 650 evening primrose flowers, nectar production was measured in response to silence, sound at three different frequency levels, and a recording of the buzzing noise made by bees.

实验中，涉及了650多种晚上开花的报春花，测试了它们对无声、三种不同频率的声音以及蜜蜂发出的嗡嗡声所做出的反应。

Sure enough, both the field recording of buzzing bees and the low-frequency sounds that closely matched the recording were enough to change the mix of the nectar in just three minutes. The silence and the high and mid frequency sounds had no effect.

果不其然，蜜蜂声音的现场录音和与之相似的低频声音在三分钟内便可改变花蜜的浓度。无声和高中频的声音则对花蜜的浓度无影响。

The team also tried the experiments with plants that had some flower petals removed. No change in nectar production was noted, indicating that it is indeed the flowers that have the job of the ears.

研究小组还对一些被摘掉花瓣的植物进行了实验。花蜜的浓度并没有发生变化，这说明植物的花确实具有“耳朵”的功能。

These lab tests were backed up by observations the team made in the wild.

这些在实验室进行的实验帮助实验小组获得了去野外观察的机会。

"Plants have plenty of interactions with animals, and animals both make and hear noises," one of the team, Lilach Hadany, told Ed Yong at The Atlantic.

研究小组成员之一利拉赫•哈达尼在接受《大西洋月刊》采访时说：“植物和动物之间的互动非常频繁，动物既能发出声音，也能听到声音。”

"It would be maladaptive for plants to not use sound for communication. We tried to make clear predictions to test that and were quite surprised when it worked out."

“植物不利用声音进行交流是很难适应环境的。为了验证这一观点，我们进行了清晰的推测，而结果也确实如此，这让我们感到非常惊讶。”

Pushing out sweeter nectar means bees may well stay feeding for longer—increasing the chances that they'll pick up pollen—and also makes it more likely that the insects will return to flowers of the same species in the future.

当植物释放出更甜的花蜜，蜜蜂停留的时间就会更长——这样才会增加它们获得花粉的机会——同时也可使蜜蜂再次停留在相同物种花朵的可能性大大增加。

Next, the researchers want to look at how plants might respond to other sounds and animals, including humans.

接下来，研究人员希望能够了解植物对其他声音和动物（包括人类）的反应方式。

"Some people may think, how can [plants] hear or smell?" one of the study authors Marine Veits told National Geographic. "I'd like people to understand that hearing is not only for ears."

该实验的研究者之一马里内•法伊茨在接受《国家地理》采访时说：“有些人可能会想，植物怎么能听见声音、闻到气味呢？我希望人们明白，听不仅仅可以靠耳朵。”

本文素材来源：ScienceAlert网站

论文:Flowers respond to pollinator sound within minutes by increasing nectar sugar concentration.

文章来源:新东方英语