紐時賞析／冬雨和接連的陣雨 替加州帶來繁花似錦

From Heavy Showers to Awash in Flowers

冬雨（跟接連的陣雨）帶來繁花似錦

Torrential downpours this winter sent California residents fleeing from floods and mudslides. Blizzards dumped snow in the mountains, trapping locals in their homes for weeks. Hulking trees crashed into homes and severed power lines.

今年冬天的傾盆大雨迫使加州居民逃離洪水與土石流。暴風雪在山上倒雪，讓當地人困在他們家中好幾周，粗重的樹木撞進房屋還切斷電線。

But the succession of atmospheric rivers did deliver relief from a prolonged drought. And it left behind other rewards that are only now emerging: The state is awash in color, from the Eastern Sierra to Malibu, from the deserts near San Diego to the meadows north of Sacramento.

但連續的大氣長河確實讓長期乾旱緩解，還留下如今才浮現的其他好處：這個州充滿色彩，從東部山脈到馬里布，從聖地牙哥附近沙漠到沙加緬度北方的草地。

“This is how we feed our souls,” said Heather Schneider, a rare-plant biologist with the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.

聖塔芭芭拉植物園的稀有植物生物學家海瑟．施耐德說，「這就是我們滋養我們靈魂的方式」。

California is experiencing a “super bloom,” an explosion of floral color across hillsides and valleys that occurs only after a particularly wet season. The last time the state experienced the phenomenon on a widespread basis was four years ago — and with California’s boom-bust cycles of precipitation, it is anyone’s guess when the next one will come.

加州正在經歷一場「超級綻放」，這種各處山坡跟山谷的花卉色彩爆發，只在特別多雨的季節後發生。該州前一次大規模經歷這個現象是在4年前，而且隨著加州降雨量興衰循環，下次會在何時到來誰也說不準。

In dry years, many annual wildflower seeds lie dormant in the fragile layers of soil where their parents dropped them, waiting for rain so they can germinate. If enough water arrives, those flowers burst through, in an almost alchemical combination of moisture, temperature, timing and location.

在乾旱年分，許多一年生野花的種子在雙親扔下它們的脆弱土層中休眠，等候著雨水，以便它們可以萌芽。如果足夠的水降臨，在濕度、溫度、時間與位置的接近煉金術式組合中，這些花就會破土而出。

California poppies in recent weeks have turned rolling hillsides into flame-orange canvasses in the Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles. Carpets of yellow goldfields and purple phacelia have unfurled at the Carrizo Plain National Monument, the largest intact grassland in the state’s Central Valley, about 70 miles west of Bakersfield. The flowers are so densely packed across wide swaths of land that recent satellite images look like they’ve been touched by a painter’s brush.

在洛杉磯以北的羚羊谷，花菱草最近幾周把綿延起伏的山坡變成了火橙色油畫。位於貝克斯菲爾德以西約70英里、加州中央山谷最大完好草原卡立卓平原國家公園，黃色加州金花與紫鐘穗花的地毯已經鋪開。這些花是如此密密麻麻地擠滿了大片土地，以至於近期衛星影像看上去像是它們被畫家的畫筆觸動。

For scientists like Schneider, who has been periodically visiting the Carrizo Plain for research, this year’s flower bonanza is a prime opportunity to study ecosystems similar to those that may be lost to development or agriculture elsewhere. This year, she said, the sustained precipitation and colder temperatures were likely to give her and other researchers more time to study wildflowers than in past wet years.

施耐德一直定期探訪卡立卓平原進行研究，對於像她這樣的科學家來說，今年的花卉盛開是個絕佳機會，能夠研究近似於其他地方可能因發展或農業而流失的生態系統。她說，相較於過去的多雨年分，這一年持續的降雨跟較冷溫度，可能給她和其他研究人員更多時間研究野花。

Different flower species thrive in subtly different conditions. And botanists have predicted that this year’s wildflower season could extend through the spring and into the summer, particularly at higher elevations.

不同花卉品種適合生長的環境有細微差異。植物學家預測，今年的野花季節可能延續整個春季直到夏天，特別是在高海拔地區。

“I kind of think of it in waves of color,” Schneider said. Yellow is typically first, she noted. Then purple.

施耐德說，「我想這有點像色彩波浪」，她說，通常先是黃色，接著是紫色。

文／Jill Cowan　譯／周辰陽

說文解字看新聞

【周辰陽】

最廣為人知的Hulk當屬在漫威漫畫登場的超級英雄「浩克」，Hulk本身意思就是指大、重、難以處理的人或物，hulking形容外觀巨大沉重或笨重，尤其是醜陋或嚇人。如：When I woke up there was a hulking figure staring down at me.

形容降雨量「興衰循環」的「Boom and bust cycle」本意是反覆發生的經濟擴張和收縮過程，也就是繁榮與蕭條的循環周期。繁榮期間的經濟成長與工作充足，市場為投資者帶來高回報，而在隨後的蕭條期間，經濟萎縮、民眾失業、投資人賠錢。這是資本主義經濟的一個重要特徵，但持續時間長短不一，嚴重程度也不盡相同。

如果直接查英漢字典，會發現Goldfields的意思是「金礦區」或「採金地」，但其實是一種俗名為「California Goldfields」的花卉，學名則是「Lasthenia Californica」，有翻譯為「加州金花」。這種花卉可以在貧瘠的土地成長，能用一大片亮色覆蓋曠野，因此獲得Goldfields的名字。