在世界各地，有超过 600 种植物物种除了需要普通的阳光、水和土壤之外，还捕食昆虫、青蛙甚至老鼠。苍蝇、蝌蚪和甲虫成为肉食性植物这一奇特猎食者的盘中餐。食肉植物到底是什么，它们如何捕获猎物呢？肯尼·库根深入研究了这些肉食骗子的世界。
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Little do they know it, but these six creatures are each about to experience a very unusual death. One-by-one, they will fall prey to the remarkable, predatory antics of… a carnivorous plant. 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
尽管它们毫无察觉，但这六种生物都将以一种十分不寻常的方式死亡。一个接着一个，它们将成为奇特猎食者的盘中餐……食肉植物。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
Around the world there are more than 600 plant species that supplement a regular diet of sunlight, water, and soil with insects, microbes, or even frogs and rats. Scientists believe that carnivory in plants evolved separately at least six times on our planet, suggesting that this flesh-munching adaptation holds a major benefit for plants. Carnivorous plants tend to grow in places with highly acidic soil, which is poor in crucial nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. In these hostile conditions, plants that are able to lure, trap, and digest prey have an advantage over those that rely on soil for their nutrients. 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
全世界有多于600种植物除了需要阳光、水和土壤这些常规“饮食”外，还“吃”昆虫、微生物、甚至青蛙和老鼠。科学家们相信，地球上植物的食肉性的进化独立上演过至少六次，这说明这种食肉的适应性为植物提供了极大益处。食肉植物常生长在强酸性土壤处，这种土壤缺乏如氮、磷、钾等重要养分。在这种恶劣的环境中，能吸引、捕杀和消化猎物的植物比单纯依赖土壤的植物更具优势。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
Take this inhospitable bog, where pitcher plants reign supreme. Drawn to the pitcher’s vivid colors and alluring scent, the fly closes in and slurps its nectar. But this pitcher species has an ingredient called coniine in its nectar, a powerful narcotic to insects. As the coniine takes effect, the fly grows sluggish, stumbles, and falls down the funnel into a pool of liquid at the base, where he drowns. Enzymes and bacteria in the liquid slowly break his body down into microscopic particles the pitcher plant can consume through its leaves. Occasionally, larger prey also tumbles into the fatal funnel of the pitcher plant. 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
以这片荒凉的沼泽地为例，猪笼草在这里生长茂盛。这只苍蝇被猪笼草的艳丽颜色和诱人气味所吸引，它靠近猪笼草并啜饮其花蜜。但这种猪笼草的花蜜中含有一种成分叫毒芹碱，是一种强大的昆虫麻醉剂。当毒芹碱生效时，苍蝇变得迟钝、蹒跚，跌入捕虫笼底部的一池液体，最后淹死于此。液体中的酶和细菌慢慢将它的身体分解成猪笼草的叶子可以吸收的微观颗粒。偶尔地，也有较大猎物坠入猪笼草那致命的捕虫笼中。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
The second victim faces off with the sticky sundew plant. The sundew’s tiny leaves are equipped with a viscous secretion called mucilage. The ant is swiftly trapped in this goo. As she struggles, enzymes begin to digest her body. Special tentacles sense her movement and curl around her, clenching her in their suffocating grip. Once she asphyxiates, which can happen in under an hour, the tentacles unfurl again to snare their next victim. 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
第二个受害者遇到了黏黏的茅膏菜。茅膏菜的小叶上带有黏分泌物：粘液。这只蚂蚁很快被粘性物困住了。当她挣扎的时候，酶已开始消化她的身体。独特的触须感知到其活动，并在她周身缠绕收紧，令人窒息地挤压着她。一小时内，一旦她窒息后，这些触须再次松开，以便诱捕下一个受害者。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
Two down, four to go. The next target meets his end underground, in the coils of the corkscrew plant. He enters the roots through a tiny slit in search of food. But inside, he quickly loses his way through the tangled labyrinth. A forest of curved hairs prevents his escape, guiding him into a central chamber with flesh-digesting enzymes and deadly low levels of oxygen. 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
已经牺牲2个，还剩4个。下一个目标将死于长在地下螺旋植物的缠绕中。他为找食物而钻入根部小切口，但很快便迷失在那错综复杂的迷宫里。密集的卷毛让他无法逃走，将他引至中心腔室，里面有消化血肉的酶，且那里氧气水平非常低。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
In the murky depths of a nearby pond, a tadpole unwittingly swims into the path of the bladderwort, the speediest of all carnivorous plants. She treads on the bladderwort’s trigger, and in milliseconds, a trapdoor swings open and sucks her in. Trapped half in and half out, she struggles to free herself while the part of her body inside the plant gets digested. Over the next few hours, her writhing sets the trap off repeatedly, each time bringing her deeper into the plant to be digested alive bit by bit. 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
在附近池塘的阴暗深处，一只蝌蚪不知不觉地游进了狸藻的地盘，狸藻是食肉植物中消化最快的。她触及到狸藻的触须，仅在几毫秒内，活板门打开，她被吸了进去。身体一半困在里面，一半在外，她努力想挣脱，但她在植物内的身体已被消化。在接下来的几个小时里，她的扭动反复地打开活板门，每次都让更多的身体进入，一点一点地活着被消化掉了。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
Meanwhile, this beetle is bewitched by sweet-smelling nectar. The scent draws him closer and closer until he lands on the leaves of the world’s most infamous carnivorous plant. His landing triggers tiny hairs on the surface of the leaves, and the jaws of the venus fly trap snap shut around him. The spikes interlock to seal his fate. Once closed, the leaves act like an external stomach that digests the beetle’s soft tissues. When they open again a few days later, only the dry husk of his exoskeleton remains. 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
与此同时，这只甲虫被甜美的花蜜所迷惑。气味吸引他越来越靠近，直到他落在世上最臭名昭著的食肉植物的叶子上。他的降落触发了叶表的微小毛发，捕蝇草的捕虫夹在他周围快速闭合，刺毛互锁决定了他的命运。一旦闭合，叶子就像一个外部胃，消化掉甲虫的软组织。当几天后叶子再次打开时，只剩下他干枯的外骨骼外壳。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
The mayfly is the last creature standing. As she approaches the butterwort plant, she heads for the flowers that wave high above the plant’s globs of adhesive goo. She alights on the petals, drinks the nectar, and takes off unscathed. These long flower stalks keep certain insects away from the carnivore’s traps— a way of separating pollinators from food. Off the mayfly buzzes to live a long and fruitful life– oh. 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
最后的生物是蜉蝣。当她靠近捕虫堇时，她飞向了团团粘液上方、高高摇曳的花朵。她落在花瓣上，喝完花蜜，毫发无伤地飞走了。这些长花茎使某些昆虫远离食肉植物的陷阱——一种将授粉者与猎物分开的方法。蜉蝣翁嗡飞走了，去过漫长而多姿的一生——噢！文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2688.html
