世界最大最臭花朵盛开 花期只持续48小时!

People line up to get a look (and a whiff) of corpse flowers when they bloom. The rare tropical plant takes nearly a decade to form its first bloom and, when it does, the odor it releases is comparable to rotting flesh. The blooms also only last for a day or two.

在"尸花"开花的时候，人们排队去看（和闻）这种花。这种罕见的热带植物几乎十年才开一次花，花散发的味道像是腐烂的肉。而且花期只有一两天。

So, it's incredibly strange that corpse flowers from Missouri to Florida are suddenly blooming all at the same time.

因此，从密苏里州到佛罗里达州的"尸花"同时开放，还是挺不可思议的。

Scientists aren't sure why this phenomenon is happening, but the flowers are releasing their deathly smell in Bloomington, Indiana; Sarasota, Florida; Washington, D.C.; St. Louis and New York, according to The Wall Street Journal.

科学家们不清楚这种现象为什么会发生，但是据《华尔街日报》报道，这种花确实在印第安纳州的布卢明顿、佛罗里达州的萨拉索塔、华盛顿特区、圣路易斯和纽约散发着臭味。

"A few of us are saying, 'Well, wait a minute, how did six or seven happen all at once?'" Marc Hachadourian, director of the Nolen Greenhouses at the New York Botanical Garden, told the paper.

纽约植物园诺伦温室主任马克·哈查多里安在接受报纸采访时表示："有的人会说，'再等一等吧，如果6、7朵花同时开放会是什么样呢？'"

For perspective, the University of Wisconsin-Madison conducted a study and found only 157 corpse flower blooms between 1889 and 2008.

为了这个观点，美国威斯康辛大学曼迪逊分校开展了一项研究，发现在1889年到2008年这期间只有157株"尸花"开了花。

Having seen what it looks like, the Latin name for the flower makes complete sense: Amorphophallus titanum, which translates to "giant misshapen penis."

看过这种花的样子之后，它的拉丁学名就完全说得通了--"泰坦魔芋"。

The flower is said to share some chemical compounds with Limburger cheese and human feces, creating a miasma that is meant to attract insects to help the plant to pollinate. Descriptions of the smell range from person to person, but the consensus is that it's definitely not pleasant.

据说这种花含有和比利时林堡干酪以及人类排泄物相同的化学成分，所以可以散发臭气来吸引昆虫帮助授粉。对这种味道的描述因人而异，但是总体上有一个共识，那就是：实在不太好闻。

Corpse flowers come from the warm and balmy Sumatran rainforests, so blooms this time of year are normal. It's just the simultaneous accounts of blooms that are leading to extreme curiosity.

"尸花"原产于温暖的苏门达腊雨林，所以在这个时候开花是正常现象。人们如此惊讶是因为开花的同步率太高了。

Daniel Janzen, a professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Journal that these plants may be flowering together because they're related. If the plants are "cousins" or "siblings," they'd likely mature at the same rate because it's a way for "slowly maturing plants to improve their chances of cross-pollination." Despite each plant being miles and miles apart, their lineage could be keeping them synchronized.

丹尼尔·詹森是宾夕法尼亚大学生物学教授，他在接受《华尔街日报》采访时表示，这些植物同时开花是因为它们是相关联的。如果这些植物是"表亲"或者"血亲"的话，它们会以相同的速率成熟，因为这是"成熟缓慢的植物增进交叉授粉机会"的一个方法。虽然这些植物之间相隔数百甚至数千英里，但是它们之间的关联使得开花的同步率非常之高。

We're likely not headed for our own version of "Little Shop of Horrors," but these plants definitely have a secret we'll never know.

我们可能不想让现实版本的《异形奇花》上演，但是这些植物确实有一些我们不知道的秘密。