【精英翻譯】的部落格

Water Hyacinth: Weed or Wonder?

布袋蓮：有害雜草變身環保資源

精英翻譯社轉自https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0058/351831/web/

With big leaves and bright purple flowers, the water hyacinth is a beautiful sight. Air-filled stems on each leaf keep the leaves and flowers above the water like a small floating garden. Its attractive appearance has led to the plant, which is native to the Amazon basin, being introduced around most of the major continents. This has created huge problems in each of these places.

布袋蓮有大片葉子和鮮豔的紫色花朵，是個美麗的景象。每片葉子上充滿空氣的莖讓葉子和花朵浮在水面上，像是一座小型的漂浮花園。其具吸引力的外觀使這種原生於亞馬遜河流域的植物被引進到主要大陸大部分的地方，在這些地方的每一處都產生了很大的問題。

The water hyacinth has been called the fastest-growing plant in the world. Over just one season, a plant the size of your hand can grow into a sprawling patch of more than 600 square meters. These mats block light from reaching the water below, ruining habitats for water-dwelling animals. The water hyacinth also eats up oxygen in the water that other plants and animals need and leaves lots of dead plant parts in the water over time.

布袋蓮被稱為世界上生長最快速的植物。只要經過一季，一株手掌大的植物就可以長到超過六百平方公尺綿延不絕的一大片。這一片一片的布袋蓮阻擋陽光穿透到底下的水面，破壞了水生動物的棲息地。布袋蓮也會耗盡水中其他動植物所需的氧氣，久而久之就在水中留下大量死亡的植物殘體。

Getting rid of this eye-catching plant is difficult because it produces many, many seeds, which can survive for years before maturing into a full-grown plant. People may think they’ve killed all the plants in one pond, only to see the weed pop back up a year later from these hidden seeds.

要除去這種吸睛的植物很難，因為它會產生很多很多的種子，種子在長成成熟的植物前可以活好幾年。人們可能以為已將池裡的所有植物剷除殆盡，卻在一年後看見這種雜草又從這些隱藏的種子中長回來。