I have a challenge for you.

我想給大家一個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)。

The next time you're stuck in traffic, take a minute to take a look at the sea of cars around you.

下次你堵車時(shí)，花一分鐘看看你周圍的車流。

How many car companies do you think you could recognize?

你覺得你能認(rèn)出多少汽車公司？

I'm not even really into cars, but I think I'd do fairly well.

我對(duì)汽車不是很感興趣，但我想這個(gè)問題并不難。

But then look beyond the cars to the trees that line the side of the road.

那么再看看車窗外，路邊的那些樹木。

How many of those could you identify?

你能辨認(rèn)出其中的幾種呢？

Probably not as many, right?

可能不是很多，對(duì)吧？

Year upon year, we grow further and further away from nature to the point where we have to question:

年復(fù)一年，我們離自然越來越遠(yuǎn)，以至于會(huì)開始好奇：

What experience of nature will the next generation have?

我們的下一代對(duì)自然的體驗(yàn)會(huì)是怎樣的？

And if that generation lacks a sort of emotional connection with their surroundings, then will they bother to fight and save it when we need it most?

如果下一代人與他們周圍的環(huán)境缺乏情感聯(lián)系，那么在我們最需要的時(shí)候，他們會(huì)不會(huì)去努力戰(zhàn)斗，拯救自然？

My name is Nirupa Rao, and I'm a botanical artist.

我叫尼魯帕·饒（NirupaRao），是一名植物藝術(shù)家。

In short, that means I paint plants, usually with watercolor,

簡(jiǎn)單地說，我通常用水彩以植物為主題作畫，

in a way that aims to be not only aesthetically appealing but also scientifically accurate.

以一種不僅具有美學(xué)吸引力，但同時(shí)具備科學(xué)精確度的方式。

And I'm well aware that this is quite an odd profession for a 21st-century urban Indian -- some might say outdated in the age of the camera -- but here's how my journey began.

我很清楚，對(duì)一個(gè)21世紀(jì)的印度都市人來說，這是個(gè)非常奇怪的職業(yè)——有些人會(huì)說，這種形式在鏡頭主導(dǎo)的時(shí)代已經(jīng)過時(shí)了——但我的旅途就是這樣開始的。

A few years ago, I met two naturalists who work with the Nature Conservation Foundation:

幾年前，我遇到兩位在自然保護(hù)基金會(huì)工作的自然學(xué)家：

Divya Mudappa and T.R. Shankar Raman.

迪維婭·穆達(dá)帕和T.R .尚卡爾·拉曼。

And now interestingly, they actually began their careers working with animals,

有意思的是，他們最開始的職業(yè)是保護(hù)動(dòng)物，

but they soon came to realize that if they were to protect those animals, they'd also have to protect their habitats -- that is,

但他們很快意識(shí)到，如果他們要保護(hù)這些動(dòng)物，他們也必須保護(hù)它們的棲息地——也就是，

the trees they live off.

它們賴以生存的樹林。

And so they started a rainforest restoration program aimed at growing local trees that local birds and animals rely on.

于是他們啟動(dòng)了一個(gè)雨林復(fù)蘇項(xiàng)目，旨在種植當(dāng)?shù)伉B類和動(dòng)物賴以生存的樹木。

And they were looking to visually document them in some way, but the photographers they approached came up empty-handed.

他們還想用通過視覺的方式進(jìn)行記錄，但他們?cè)儐栠^的攝影師卻往往束手無策。

These trees were up to 140 feet tall.

這些樹高達(dá)140英尺。

That's 26 times my height.

是我身高的26倍。

Try capturing giants like that in a single camera frame.

可以想象用單幀相機(jī)捕捉這些參天大樹的難度。

Besides, the surrounding greenery was just too dense to clearly isolate a single tree.

另外，周圍的草木太茂密了，很難清晰的分離其中一棵樹。

And so together, we decided to give good old painting a shot.

于是，我們一起決定給老畫筆一個(gè)機(jī)會(huì)。

And to tell you the truth, even when I was standing there right in front of them, it was difficult to see the entire tree.

說實(shí)話，即便當(dāng)我站在它們前面，也很難看清楚整顆樹。

So instead I'd study the buttress up close and then climb up the hill to see its crown rising above the canopy.

所以我就近距離研究樹的支撐部分，然后爬上山去觀察頂部的樹冠。

And then with Divya, and she there as aide, we could piece these pieces of the puzzle together into the final painting.

在迪維婭的幫助下，我們就可以把這些碎片信息拼湊在一起形成最終的畫面。

For a lot of people who don't know the jungles as well as these naturalists,

對(duì)大多數(shù)不知道叢林和這些自然學(xué)家的人來說，

these paintings are the only way that they'll get to see these trees in their entirety.

這些畫作是他們能看到這些樹木全貌的唯一方法。

We were able to document 30 of the region's most iconic species along with their fruit, flowers, seeds and leaves.

我們得以記錄下該地區(qū)30種最具代表性的物種，以及它們的果實(shí)、花朵、種子和葉子。

Through this process, the jungles really came alive to me.

通過這個(gè)過程，這些叢林在我面前活了起來。

They morphed from this undifferentiated sea of green into individual species with individual characters.

它們從一片毫無差別的綠色海洋，變成了具有個(gè)體特征的個(gè)體物種。

And I think a lot of people just tend to see plants as background scenery, assuming that their immobility makes them uninteresting.

我知道很多人只是傾向于把植物視作背景，認(rèn)為靜止的狀態(tài)讓它們顯得很無趣。

But I began to see that it is that very rootedness that makes them fascinating,

但我開始意識(shí)到，正是這種扎根的本性讓它們?nèi)绱嗣匀耍?/p>

the ingenious ways in which they adapt and respond to threats and opportunities on timescales that make our heads hurt to imagine.

它們適應(yīng)和應(yīng)對(duì)威脅和機(jī)遇時(shí)的獨(dú)特方式讓我們難以想象。

And I couldn't help but wonder: What if I could tell their stories, showcase their complexity?

我不禁想：如果我能講述他們的故事，展示他們的復(fù)雜性，又會(huì)怎么樣？

Perhaps we'd all start to think of plants a little differently.

也許我們都會(huì)開始從不同的角度看待它們。

And in fact, in my family, plants have always been a source of fascination.

事實(shí)上，在我的家族，植物一直是魅力的來源。

My grand-uncle, Father Cecil Saldanha, was the first to document the flora of our home state of Karnataka back in the '60s.

我的伯祖父塞西爾·薩爾丹哈神父是60年代第一個(gè)記錄我們家鄉(xiāng)卡納塔克邦植物的人。

And my mother has all of these memories of being a little girl watching this entire enterprise unfold.

我的母親擁有所有這些記憶，當(dāng)時(shí)她還是一個(gè)小女孩，見證了整個(gè)事業(yè)在她眼前展開。

And consequently, I've come to associate plants with adventure and discovery and excitement.

因此，我也自然而然的把植物和冒險(xiǎn)、發(fā)現(xiàn)和驚奇聯(lián)系在一起。

And so I knew I didn't just want to paint roses and sunflowers.

所以我知道我不僅僅想畫玫瑰和向日葵。

I wanted to paint the kinds of plants that botanists like my uncle work with.

我想畫像我叔叔這樣的植物學(xué)家所研究的植物種類。

And so I set out to create a book, supported by the National Geographic Society, on the weirdest,

于是在國(guó)家地理學(xué)會(huì)的支持下，我開始寫一本書，

wackiest plants we could find in one of the most biodiverse regions in the world: India's very own Western Ghats.

記錄我們能在世界上生物多樣性最豐富的地區(qū)——印度自己的西高止山脈——找到的最奇特、最古怪的植物。

Take a look at these fantastic jewel-like sundews.

看看這些奇異的珠寶般的茅膏花。

They grow in regions where nutrient content in the soil is poor, and so they have a little way of supplementing their diets.

它們生長(zhǎng)在土壤養(yǎng)分含量低的地區(qū)，并且有個(gè)豐富飲食結(jié)構(gòu)的方法。

They lure, trap and ingest insects using mucilaginous glands on their leaves.

它們利用葉子上的粘液腺來引誘、誘捕和攝食昆蟲。

The little insects are attracted to the sweet secretions, but once they come in contact, they are ensnared and the game is up.

小昆蟲被甜甜的分泌物所吸引，但一旦接觸，就中了圈套，成了盤中餐。

And you might notice that the sundews very cleverly hold their flowers on tall,

你們可能注意到了，茅膏花非常巧妙地把花托在又高又細(xì)的莖上，

thin stems high above their murderous leaves to avoid trapping potential pollinators.

高于那些有害的葉子，以避免捕獲潛在的傳粉者。

Further inside the jungle, you might meet the strangler fig.

在叢林深處，你可能會(huì)遇到扼殺者無花果。

It grows in areas where sunlight is scant and competition is intense.

它生長(zhǎng)在陽光稀少且競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈的地方。

And so it has a strategy to sort of cut in line and get ahead.

所以它有一種插隊(duì)領(lǐng)先的策略。

You see, its seeds are dispersed by birds that drop them atop the branches of existing trees.

它的種子是由鳥類傳播的，它們把種子撒在現(xiàn)有的樹枝上。

And that little seed will start to germinate from there, sending its shoots upward to the sky and its roots all the way down to the ground,

那顆小種子就會(huì)從那里開始發(fā)芽，把它的枝條伸向天空，它的根一直扎入泥土中，

all the while strangling the host tree, often to death.

直到把宿主樹勒住，常常是勒死。

And even if that host tree dies and rots away, the strangler will persist as a hollowed-out column of roots and branches.

即使宿主樹死了，腐爛了，“扼殺者”也會(huì)以鏤空的根枝形態(tài)繼續(xù)存在。

And if that didn't impress you, let me show you one of my personal favorites: the Neelakurinji.

如果這還不夠讓人印象深刻，我再給你們展示我最喜愛的植物之一：尼拉庫林吉花。

When it blossoms, it does so in unison, covering entire hillsides in carpets of blue.

當(dāng)它開花的時(shí)候，所有花朵會(huì)同時(shí)綻放，為整個(gè)山坡覆蓋上藍(lán)色的“地毯”。

This is its pollination strategy known as "gregarious flowering," in which it invests all of its resources into a single,

這就是它被稱為“群居開花”的授粉策略，即把所有資源投入到單一壯觀的事件中，

spectacular event aimed at attracting pollinators to the feast -- which is easily done,

一場(chǎng)吸引傳粉者的盛宴——這很容易做到，

considering the Neelakurinji is all that can be seen for miles around.

鑒于尼拉庫林吉花在幾英里內(nèi)都能看到。

But here's the catch: it happens only once every 12 years.

但這里有個(gè)問題：它每12年才發(fā)生一次。

And soon after seeding, these flowers will die, not to be seen again for the next 12 years.

在授粉后不久，這些花將會(huì)死去，下次看到它綻放，還要再等12年。

This is our way of telling a story of the Western Ghats:

這就是我們講述西高止故事的方式：

through plants and through their ecosystems and the various ways in which they interact with players in their habitats.

透過植物和它們的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，以及它們和棲息地的主角們多樣化的互動(dòng)方式。

It's glorious, isn't it?

很美好，不是嗎？

But the way things are going, we can't be sure that the Neelakurinji will come out to play again in the next 12 years.

但事實(shí)是，我們無法確定尼拉庫林吉花在下一個(gè)12年還能如常綻放。

The further and further we grow from nature, the more we are almost literally blind to it and the effects that our activities have on it.

我們離自然越遠(yuǎn)，我們對(duì)它們，和我們的活動(dòng)對(duì)它們的影響就越來越不了解。

And that's what it's called -- "plant blindness": the increasing inability to really register the plants around us as living beings.

這就是所謂的“植物盲”：越來越多的人無法真正將我們周圍的植物視為生物。

The two scientists that coined this term, Elisabeth Schussler and James Wandersee, contend that plants lack certain visual cues.

創(chuàng)造這一術(shù)語的兩位科學(xué)家伊麗莎白·舒斯勒和詹姆斯·萬德塞認(rèn)為，植物缺乏某些視覺線索。

They don't have faces, they don't move, and we don't perceive them as threats.

它們沒有面孔，無法移動(dòng)，我們也不把它們視為威脅。

And so with the increasing onslaught of information that our eyes receive, we just deprioritize registering plants,

隨著我們眼睛接收到的信息越多，我們直接把注意力從植物身上移開了，

simply filtering out information that we view as extraneous.

簡(jiǎn)單地過濾掉了我們認(rèn)為無關(guān)的信息。

But stop to think about that.

但停下來想一想。

Are plants really extra?

植物真的是多余的嗎？

Are they just nature's backdrop?

它們只是大自然的背景嗎？

Or are they the fundamental building blocks upon which all life is based,

還是說它們是所有生命賴以生存的基石，

the starting points of our ecosystems and the reason why earth is sustainable for life to this day?

是我們生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的起點(diǎn)和今天地球仍然能夠維持生命的原因？

I leave you with these images from a program called "Wild Shaale," which in Kannada means "wild school."

最后我要展示的這些照片來自“WildShaale”項(xiàng)目，在埃納德語里是“野外學(xué)?！钡囊馑?。

It's run by a conservationist, Krithi Karanth.

它的經(jīng)營(yíng)者是一位環(huán)保主義者克里蒂 9 9卡朗斯。

And her team turned some of my illustrations into games that village children could play with and learn from.

她的團(tuán)隊(duì)把我的一些插圖變成了村里的孩子們可以玩耍和學(xué)習(xí)的游戲。

And I can tell you they were so excited to see plants that they recognized -- the trees that the monkeys play on,

我可以告訴你們，他們對(duì)認(rèn)出了畫中的植物感到非常興奮——有猴群玩耍的樹木，

the flowers they use at their harvest festival, the fruit they use to wash their hair.

他們?cè)谪S收節(jié)使用的花朵，他們用來洗頭的水果。

And it's that sort of familiarity which, when celebrated, turns to love, which then turns into an urge to protect.

這種熟悉感在慶祝的時(shí)刻變成了愛，然后又轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)楸Ｗo(hù)的沖動(dòng)。

It's really time we open our eyes to the world around us, to this entire kingdom that's hidden in plain sight.

是時(shí)候，讓我們睜開眼睛，去觀察周遭的世界，去欣賞隱藏在眼前的這一整個(gè)王國(guó)。

And so the next time you're stuck in traffic, you know what to do.

那么下次當(dāng)你遇上堵車時(shí)，你就知道該怎么做了吧。