背景介绍：
非洲灌木百合的生长繁殖需要特殊的小气候环境，因此，将种子播种至母代附近最有利于子代的生长，但如果距离母代太近又会争夺母代的资源。那么，让种子和母代之间保持一个合适的距离就至关重要了，这该如何实现呢？
Lilies tweak their fruit and seeds to ensure their propagation
百合对其果实和种子进行改造，以确保其繁殖
Spit it out
把种子吐出来
African bush lilies are demanding plants. To thrive, they need dappled shade—for they are sensitive to full sunlight—and well-drained soil. They are therefore patchily distributed, growing only in microclimates where these conditions pertain.
非洲灌木百合是一种对生长环境有着严苛要求的植物。为了能够茁壮生长，它们需要斑驳的树荫（它们对充足的阳光很敏感）和排水良好的土壤。因此，它们往往散落分布，仅在这些条件适宜的小气候中生长。
That means their seeds are likely to do best if they germinate near the plant that bore them. Too near, though, and they will compete with that parent for resources.
这意味着，这些种子如果在播种它们的植物附近将会生长的最好。但是，如果靠的太近将会和它们的母代植物争夺资源。
Some原由网how, a way needs to be arranged for seeds to be carried the optimum distance from their parwww.58yuanyou.comental plants. And Ian Kiepiel and Steven Johnson at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa, think they know how it happens.
于是乎，需要通过某种途径让种子和母代植物保持最佳的距离。南非夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省大学的伊恩基尔和史蒂文约翰逊认为他们知道这是如何实现的了。
Plants are masters at manipulating animals into assisting their reproduction. One way this happens is that the seeds of many species are just the right size and shape to endure passage through the alimentary canals of the animals that swallow them.
植物是操纵动物协助其繁殖的专家。其中的一种方式便是，许多植物种子的大小和形状正好适合动物吞下从而进入其消化道。
When they eventually end up as part of a dung pile, they are thus far from home. The bush lily’s predicament, however, suggested to Mr Kiepiel and Dr Johnson that it was not in the plant’s best interest for animals to swallow its seeds in the first place.
当最终成为粪堆的一部分时，它们离家就很远了。但是，灌木百合的窘境向基尔和约翰逊暗示，动物直接将种子吞下并不符合这种植物的最佳利益。
Closer examination of those seeds supported that notion. They lacked the protective layers seen in seeds of the sort that are swallowed. They were also laced with midQUJlycorine, a toxin that, depending on the dose, causes vomiting, paralysis or death.
对这些种子的进一步研究也印证了这一观点。灌木百合的种子缺乏能够被吞下的种子所具有的保护层。同时，灌木百合的种子还含有石蒜碱，这是一种在不同剂量下会导致呕吐、瘫痪或死亡的毒素。
This led Mr Kiepiel to wonder whether the fruit themselves were edible. To this end he experimented on himself and found that they were. Though not particularly pleasant to his taste, lily-fruit flesh had a vague sweetness to it which he suspected might be attractive//www.58yuanyou.com to other mammals.
这让基尔怀疑灌木百合的果实是否能够食用。为此，他在自己身上做了实验，结果发现确实如此。灌木百合的果肉虽然不是很好吃，但是有一种淡淡的甜味，他认为这可能对其他哺乳动物具有吸引力。
He did find also, however, that the seeds tasted ghastly. A mere nibble of one was enough to release an awful astringent flavour that lingered on his palate for hours, regardless of any attempt to wash out his mouth.
然而，他也确实发现了灌木百合种子的可怕之处。仅仅咬了一点就会尝到一种让人讨厌的涩味，这种味道在他的味蕾上停留了几个小时，不管他怎么漱口都洗不掉。
In light of this experience, he and Dr Johnson set up movement-sensitive cameras at three bush-lily colonies. As they report in Biotropica, over the course of a hundred days these cameras took photographs and videos of samango monkeys coming to the plants and devouring their fruit.
根据这一经历，基尔和约翰逊在三个灌木百合聚集地安装了运动感应相机。正如他们发表在《热带生物学》杂志上的文章所描述的那样，在100天的时间里，这些相机拍下了青长尾猴来到植物前吞食灌木百合果实的照片和视频。
Often, when feeding, such monkeys fill their cheek pouches with fruit, which they then consume later, within the safety of a tree. In this case, though, the cameras recorded the monkeys gorging themselves on the fruit while next to the lilies, and only rarely storing fruit in their pouches. Why is not clear. But significantly, the cameras showed that the monkeys were, straight away,www.58yuanyou.com spitting out the seeds of every fruit they fed on.
这些猴子在进食时，通常会在它们的颊囊里装满果实，然后找个树边安全之处再食用。然而，在这种情况下，相机记录下了猴子在灌木百合边狼吞虎咽地吃果实的情景，而且它们很少会把灌木百合的果实装在颊囊里。原因尚不清楚。但值得注意的是，相机显示，这些猴子会立刻吐出它们所吃的每一个灌木百合果实的种子。
This habit of spitting out seeds suggested that the monkeys might be distributing them just far enough from their source to keep competition between parents and offspring at a minimum.
这种吐出种子的习惯表明，这些猴子可能会把种子散布到距离其来源之处足够远的地方，从而使母代和子代之间的竞争最小化。
To check this, the researchers visited two of the sites, collected as many spat-out seeds as they could find, and measured those seeds’ distances from their probable sources—nearby plants that had been fed on. Those distances averaged 63cm at one of the sites and 66cm at the other.
为了验证这一点，研究人员走访了其中的两个点，尽可能多地收集了猴子吐出的种子，并测量了这些种子与它们可能来源（即附近可供喂食的灌木百合）之间的距离。其中一个点的平均距离为63厘米，另一个点为66厘米。
This is exactly far enough to avoid competition while remaining within the microclimate. In the case of African bush lilies, then, it seems that evolution has optimised their reproduction by embedding noxious seeds inside tasty fruit, and letting the monkeys do the rest.
这个距离足以避免竞争，同时又留在了小气候中。以非洲灌木百合为例，物种进化似乎优化了它们的繁殖，将有毒的种子嵌入美味的果实之中，剩下的事就让猴子来完成吧。
(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
本文翻译：Vinnie
校核：Vinnie
编辑：Vinnie
小编说
“聪明”的非洲灌木百合通过对其种子和果实的“改造”，让猴子们乐呵呵地为其完成了繁殖播种的工作。有时候，我们不得不佩服大自然的鬼斧神工呀。
重难点词汇：
propagation [prpgen] n. 传播；繁殖；增殖
germinate [drmnet] vt. 使发芽；使生长 vi. 发芽；生长
manipulate [mnpjulet] vt. 操纵；操作；巧妙地处理；篡改
predicament [prdkmnt] n. 窘况，困境；状态
astringent [strndnt] adj. 涩的；收敛性的；止血的；严厉的
gorge [rd] n. 峡谷；胃；暴食；咽喉；障碍物 vt. 使吃饱；吞下；使扩张 vi. 拚命吃；狼吞虎咽
noxious [nks] adj. 有害的；有毒的；败坏道德的；讨厌的
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