Name: 樹木的怪奇物語！ (Trees Are So Weird)
Uploaded: 2025-11-26T17:02:59.000Z
Duration: 12 min 38 s

你看過的每一棵樹，其實都已經死了。

程度副詞

It turns out the alive part of a tree is just a tiny paper thin strip of cells trapped between a dead skeleton and dead outsides.

原來樹木活著的部分，只是一層薄薄的細胞，夾在死去的骨架和外皮之間。

Trees are some of the most extreme beings on Earth, with one of the most unique strategies in nature.

樹木是地球上最極端的生物之一，擁有大自然中最獨特的生存策略。

On top of being mostly dead stuff, they forge their body out of thin air, they mercilessly crush rocks with acid, and

除了大部分都是死去的物質組成，牠們還能從空氣中鍛造身體，用酸液無情地壓碎岩石，

they have an internal negative pressure that would kill you instantly.

並且擁有會瞬間致人於死的內部負壓。

For over a billion years, the ancestors of plants only inhabited the sun drenched surfaces of the oceans.

在超過十億年的時間裡，植物的祖先只棲息在陽光普照的海洋表面。

Their bodies were thin and delicate and absorbed water straight through their surfaces, getting their energy through photosynthesis, forging sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugar.

牠們的身體又薄又脆弱，直接從表面吸收水分，透過光合作用獲取能量，將陽光、二氧化碳和水轉化為糖分。

But about 470 million years ago, they decided to conquer a hostile alien planet.

不過大約在四億七千萬年前，牠們決定要征服一個充滿敵意的外來星球。

Like green rugs with ambition, these plant ancestors began clinging to the ground wherever it was wet and damp.

這些植物的祖先，就像是有野心的綠色地毯，開始附著在潮濕的地方。

But now, with solid ground beneath and no ability to float around, a new dimension became a place of intense warfare.

但現在，腳下是堅實的土地，又無法漂浮，一個新的維度就成了激烈戰場。

Up the higher they grew, the more sum they would get.

牠們長得越高，獲得的陽光就越多。

While starving their competition below height became a deadly weapon.

同時，讓下方的競爭者因缺乏陽光而挨餓，成為了致命武器。

Until now, plants were built mostly from cellulose, which was great for shape, but

直到現在，植物主要由纖維素構成，這對維持形狀很有幫助，但

not for strength, which limited how tall they could grow.

對強度卻不行，這限制了牠們能長多高。

Over dozens of millions of years of evolutionary warfare, a group of plants developed one of life's greatest breakthroughs.

經過數千萬年的演化戰爭，一群植物發展出了生命中最偉大的突破之一。

Lignin is a macromolecule made of ring shaped structures.

木質素是一種由環狀結構組成的大分子。

It's rigid, tough, waterproof and incredibly hard to break down concrete.

它堅固、強韌、防水，而且非常難分解，就像混凝土一樣。

In a world made of jelly, it filled gaps between cellulose threads, stiffening and locking everything into place.

在一個由果凍構成的世界裡，它填滿了纖維素纖維之間的空隙，使一切變得更堅固並鎖定到位。

Lignin gave plants the strength to grow taller and claim the sun for themselves.

木質素賦予植物更高的生長強度，讓牠們能為自己爭奪陽光。

But of course, now they were competing with each other, which must have been really annoying for them.

但當然了，現在牠們彼此競爭，這對牠們來說一定很煩人。

So as more millions of years passed, some plants just went all in on lignin and produced more and more of it, becoming stiffer, harder and stronger.

所以隨著數百萬年過去，有些植物就全力投入木質素，生產越來越多的木質素，變得越來越堅硬、越來越強韌。

Until one day, around 385 million years ago, they got the biological equivalent of steel reinforced concret wood.

直到大約三億八千五百萬年前的某一天，牠們獲得了生物學上相當於鋼筋混凝土的木材。

But with this magic material, the first trees emerged almost immediately.

但有了這種神奇的材料，第一批樹木幾乎立刻就出現了。

They became the largest living beings alive, shooting up to 20 meters high into the sky.

牠們成了現存最大的生物，直衝天際高達 20 公尺。

而且牠們就從這裡開始變得更大。

But this enormous size created extremely hard problems.

但如此巨大的體型也帶來了極其嚴峻的問題。

How do you get water from the ground up to the green parts that do the actual photosynthesis?

要如何將地底下的水送到進行光合作用的綠色部位呢？

And how do you get the sugar they produce down to the cells that keep you up there on the scale of a cell, a distance of a few meters is like you're working in Britain while your lunchbox is in Egypt and your drink in New York.

又該如何將牠們製造的糖分，送到支撐你高高站立的細胞呢？以細胞尺度來看，幾公尺的距離，就像你在英國工作，午餐盒卻在埃及，飲料則在紐約一樣。

So trees came up with one of the most amazing ways any organism grows and became nearly immortal by accident.

所以樹木想出了一種最令人驚奇的生物生長方式，並在無意間幾乎長生不老。

Let's slice an ancient tree in half and get to the heart, running it all.

讓我們將一棵古老的樹對半剖開，直達核心，一路探究。

The cambium, a razor thin circular zone just a few stem cells wide.

形成層，一條僅有幾顆幹細胞寬度的、極薄的圓形區域。

These stem cells grow inward and outwards, turning into two groups of specialists.

這些幹細胞向內向外生長，抽成兩組專門的細胞。

The inward specialists are in a conveyor belt of death, the xylem.

向內的專門細胞，就在死亡的輸送帶裡，也就是木質部。

With each new division, it's pushing the cambium outwards, making the tree thicker the older it gets.

每一次新的分裂，都會把形成層往外推，讓樹越老越粗。

As the xylem cells mature, their lignin production goes into overdrive and they become hard, like a muscle, slowly transforming into bone.

隨著木質部的細胞成熟，它們的木質素生產進入超速狀態，變得堅硬，就像肌肉一樣，慢慢轉變成骨頭。

They begin to hollow themselves out, shedding everything that once made them alive.

它們開始掏空自己，捨棄所有曾經讓它們活著的東西。

What's left is a corpse, a hard, empty tube.

剩下的就是一具屍體，一根堅硬、空心的管子。

As the tree grows, year after year, new corpses are layered on old corpses, forming rings of hardened dead tissue, A graveyard of trillions of plant bones.

隨著樹木一年又一年地生長，新的屍體層層疊加在舊屍體上，形成硬化的死亡組織環，一個由數兆植物骨頭組成的墳場。

Stacked together, they form a giant network of pipes that stretches the whole length of the tree.

它們堆疊在一起，形成一個巨大的管道網絡，延伸樹的整個長度。

This network uses the chemical properties of water and a few other tricks to move it with incredible efficiency.

這個網絡利用水的化學特性和其他一些小技巧，以驚人的效率將其輸送。

Water molecules are, for a lack of a better word, sticky, like tiny magnets and naturally cling tightly to each other.

水分子，可以說，它們很黏，就像小小的磁鐵一樣，會自然地緊緊吸附在一起。

When one moves, it pulls the next along with it, like pulling on a rope.

當一個移動時，它會帶著下一個一起移動，就像拉著一條繩子一樣。

In trees, this rope starts in the roots and ends in the leaves that bathe in the warmth from the sun.

在樹木裡，這條繩子從根部開始，一直延伸到沐浴在陽光溫暖中的葉子。

Here, the heat from the sun evaporates 95% of the water that got sucked into the roots from the from billions of tiny pores, releasing a constant, invisible mist of water molecules around the crown of the tree.

在這裡，陽光的熱量會蒸發掉從數十億個微小孔隙吸入根部的 95% 的水分，在樹冠周圍釋放出持續不斷、看不見的水分子霧氣。

This process, called transpiration in plants, creates tension on the rope of water molecules, stretching and lifting the entire column upwards all the way from the roots to the leaves.

這個過程，在植物學上稱為蒸散作用，會在水分子繩子上產生張力，將整根水柱從根部一直向上拉伸和提起，直到葉子。

This pull is so insanely strong that it can lift water over 100 meters, which requires sucking forces equivalent to the pressure of dozens of atmospheres, as much as the crushing pressure hundreds of meters deep in the ocean.

這種拉力強大到難以置信，可以將水提升超過 100 公尺，這需要相當於數十個大氣壓的吸力，相當於海洋深處數百公尺的巨大壓力。

Nothing humans have ever built comes even close to this power.

人類建造的任何東西都無法與這種力量相提並論。

Even our best machines can't pull water higher than about 10 meters, because the negative pressure required to pull hard enough makes it boil.

即使是我們最好的機器，也無法將水抽到超過約 10 公尺的高度，因為要產生足夠強的拉力所需的負壓會讓水沸騰。

But the water pipes of trees are so tiny and narrow, almost perfectly airtight, that despite the insane suction Pressure inside a tree, water stays liquid and reaches the top.

但是樹木的水管非常細小狹窄，幾乎完全密封，是以儘管樹木內部有巨大的吸力壓力，水仍然保持液態並到達頂部。

As the tree ages, old xylem cells eventually stop working and fill up with resins and other protective substances.

隨著樹木老化，舊的木質部細胞會停止作用，並充滿樹脂和其他保護性物質。

Slowly, they turn into heartwood, a dense, chemically fortified core that's extremely resistant to decay.

慢慢地，它們會變成心材，一個緻密、經過化學強化、極度抗腐蝕的核心。

The sugar produced in the sky needs to be transported to nourish cells down below.

在空中產生的糖分需要被運送到下方的細胞以提供養分。

And cells from the roots to the leaves need to coordinate and exchange information about damage and growth.

從根部到葉子的細胞需要協調並交換關於損傷和生長的資訊。

This is the job of the cambium stem cells that grow outwards the phloem, the tiny living part of the tree.

這是形成韌皮部（樹木微小的活體部分）的形成層幹細胞的工作，它們向外生長。

As the cells of the phloem grow outwards, they separate into three teams and make a brutal compromise.

隨著韌皮部細胞向外生長，它們會抽成三個小組，並做出殘酷的抉擇。

The first group are SIF cells, and their grim fate is to become a living transport system.

第一組是 SIF 細胞，它們的悲慘命運是成為活的運輸系統。

Although living is not exactly right, as they mature, they start to destroy themselves, digest their organelles and even their nuclei that houses their genetic code.

雖然說是活的也不完全對，因為隨著它們成熟，它們會開始自我毀滅，消化它們的細胞器，甚至它們的細胞核，也就是儲存遺傳密碼的地方。

At the same time, they hollow themselves out, connecting to the sieve cells above and below them.

同時，它們會讓自己中空，與上下方的篩管細胞連接。

This goes on until they're a sad shadow of living beings, a drooling living tool without a brain or arms, unable to support themselves.

這一直持續到它們變成活生生生物的悲慘影子，一個沒有大腦或手臂、無法自給自足的流口水活體工具。

Only the second group, their companion cells, keeps them alive.

只有第二組，也就是它們的伴細胞，讓它們存活下來。

They connect with the crippled sieve cells via tiny channels and start maintaining them, sending over energy instructions or repairing them if needed.

它們透過微小的通道與殘破的篩管細胞連接，開始維護它們，傳送能量指令，或在需要時進行修復。

Running along the entire tree, these two teams form a tiny and very thin layer of living sugar pipelines and signal cables that stretch throughout the entire body, providing food and information wherever it's needed in the tree.

這兩支隊伍沿著整棵樹延伸，形成一個微小且非常薄的活體糖管和訊號纜線層，遍佈全身，為樹木需要的地方提供食物和資訊。

The third team are parenchyma cells, the silent workers of the tree that are carrying out essential labor in the background.

第三支隊伍是薄壁組織細胞，它們是樹木中默默工作的工人，在幕後執行著重要的勞動。

Some are like mini pantries that store nutrients, sugars, or water that the tree uses to survive the winter when it's unable to produce food.

有些細胞就像迷你儲藏室，儲存樹木在無法生產食物的冬天用來生存的養分、糖分或水分。

Others are like mini healers that can repair damage, while some go on the offensive and create toxins and antifungal bioweapons to kill intruders.

其他的則像迷你治療師，可以修復損傷，有些則會主動出擊，製造毒素和抗真菌生物武器來殺死入侵者。

On top of the phloem sits another layer of stem cells.

They're producing a second conveyor belt of death.

它們正在生產第二條死亡輸送帶。

Moving outside, special cells grow from this layer.

往外看，這層細胞會長出特殊的細胞。

And as they mature, just like the xylem cells in the center, they kill themselves for the team, turning into a hard guard wall.

當它們成熟時，就像中心的木質部細胞一樣，它們會為團隊犧牲，變成一道堅硬的保護牆。

The bark, just like your skin, it protects the tiny living layer from damage, parasites, and invaders.

樹皮就像你的皮膚一樣，保護著微小的活體層，免受損傷、寄生蟲和入侵者的侵害。

The living part of the stem is really just this extremely thin and tiny layer, a few millimeters thick, sitting on a thick mountain of cell corpses surrounded by another layer of cell corpses.

樹幹的活體部分其實就是這層非常薄且微小的細胞層，厚度只有幾毫米，坐落在被另一層細胞屍體包圍的厚厚細胞屍體山上。

The vast majority of the biomass of a tree is is dead.

樹木的絕大部分生物質都是死亡的。

This is also why you really shouldn't damage the bark of trees.

這也是為什麼你真的不應該傷害樹木的樹皮。

Because while it seems you're only doing a little damage, you're actually killing the living part of the tree.

因為雖然看起來你只造成了一點點損害，但實際上你是在殺死樹木的活體部分。

But unless a tree is stopped by droughts, diseases, storms, or a human axe, this system of being mostly dead kind of makes trees potentially immortal.

但是，除非樹木受到乾旱、疾病、風暴或人類斧頭的阻礙，否則這種大部分死亡的系統讓樹木有可能永生不死。

In principle, they could grow this way nearly forever, which is why we still have trees around that were born when the Egyptians started building their first pyramid 5,000 years ago.

原則上，它們可以這樣幾乎永遠地生長，這也是為什麼我們至今仍能看到在埃及人開始建造第一座金字塔的五千年前就誕生的樹木。

Really what kills a tree is the world around it.

真正殺死一棵樹的是它周遭的環境。

Trees are not a real biological category, but one of the most successful ideas life has ever had.

樹木並非一個真正的生物學分類，而是生命曾有過的、最成功的概念之一。

And many different species developed on their own.

而且許多不同的物種也獨立演化出來了。

These plants won the battle for the sky, solved every challenge that had kept plants small and fragile.

這些植物贏得了爭奪天空的戰爭，解決了所有讓植物矮小脆弱的挑戰。

And they took over the planet in a few million years.

而且牠們在幾百萬年內就佔領了整個星球。

Even today, 3 trillion of them cast their majestic shadows.

即使在今天，三兆棵樹仍然投下牠們雄偉的陰影。

On top and below, there are the crown and the root system.

在上方和下方，有樹冠和根系。

One building the tree from air, Another, mining minerals with acid.

一個從空氣中建造樹木，另一個用酸性物質開採礦物質。