玻璃宝石——可能是你见过最美的玉米
Brittle corn stalks border a backyard garden in Flagstaff, Ariz., on a windswept mesa surrounded by ponderosa pine trees.
在亚利桑那州的弗拉格斯塔夫，在风吹过的平原上，四周是黄松，中间晒干的玉米秸秆点缀着一个后院花园。
They look dried-up and ordinary, but the garden's owner, Carol Fritzinger, says opening up the husks to see what's inside is like Christmas morning.
它们看起来干瘪而普通，但花园的主人卡罗尔·弗里茨格说，打开苞叶看看里面吧，看起来就像圣诞节的早晨。
"Oooh, this one's a pink and purple variety," she says, laughing as she peels back a husk to show a translucent, rainbow-colored corn cob inside.
“哦，这是一个粉红色和紫色的杂交品种，”她说，笑着剥开外壳，露出一个半透明的、彩虹色的玉米棒子。
"You just never know!"
“你永远不知道里面到底什么样！”
"Glass Gem" is like no other corn in the world.
“玻璃宝石”是世界上独一无二的玉米。
It's a throwback to ancient varieties and bred specifically for its beauty.
这是一种返祖培育的古老品种，专门为了它的美丽而繁殖。
A photo of one stunning rainbow-colored corn cob went viral in 2012.
2012年时，曾有一张彩虹色玉米棒子的照片在网上疯传。
Since then, it's inspired thousands of people to get involved with seed saving.
后来，它激励了成千上万的人参与到种子保护的活动中来。
"I want everyone to grow it," Fritzinger says, showing off a cob patterned with red-and-white swirls like peppermint candy.
“我想让每个人都种它，”弗里茨格一边说，一边炫耀着一只带有红白螺旋图案的玉米棒子，就像薄荷糖一样。
"So I give as much seed away as people will take."
“所以，人们要多少种子，我就给多少。”
"Glass Gem" has its own Facebook page with more than 19,000 followers, but its journey from an Oklahoma cornfield to Internet fame started with a man named Carl Barnes.
“玻璃宝石”拥有自己的脸书页面，拥有1.9万多名粉丝，但它从俄克拉荷马州的一片玉米地到互联网名人的旅程，始于一个名叫卡尔·巴恩斯的人。
Barnes wanted to explore his Cherokee roots, so he began collecting and planting ancient varieties of corn.
巴恩斯想要探索他的切罗基玉米的起源，所以他开始收集和种植古老的玉米品种。
A mix of Cherokee, Osage, and Pawnee varieties produced two tiny, multicolored cobs, which he showcased at a native plant gathering.
切罗基、奥萨奇和波尼的杂交品种产生了两个小的、五颜六色的穗轴，他在一次本地植物聚会上展示了它们
The colors enthralled a grower named Greg Schoen.
这些颜色迷住了一位名叫格雷格·舍恩的种植者。
Barnes didn't have much of the unusual corn, but he gave a handful of kernels to Schoen.
巴恩斯并没有多少不同寻常的玉米，但他给了舍恩一把玉米粒。
That was in the spring of 1995, around the time the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed.
那是在1995年的春天，就在艾尔弗雷德·彼·默拉联邦大楼被炸毁的前后。
Schoen, living in Oklahoma at the time, was carrying the kernels around in his pocket when the news of the bombing reached him.
当时舍恩住在俄克拉何马州，当爆炸的消息传到他那里时，他口袋里正装着玉米粒。
He pulled them out and looked at them.
他把它们拿出来，仔细端详。
"It was like I got this strong impression," he remembers, "a voice was saying: this seed is going to change things."
他回忆说:“当时我有了一个强烈的印象，一个声音在说:这颗种子将改变一切。”
Schoen moved to New Mexico a few years later, planted the corn, and crossed it with Pueblo popcorn.
几年后，舍恩搬到了新墨西哥州，种上了玉米，并在把它与普韦布洛玉米进行了杂交。
Ears appeared with not only brilliant colors but a shiny, glasslike hue.
长出来的玉米粒不仅呈现出明亮的颜色，还呈现出玻璃般的光泽。
Schoen felt it was more than a pretty plant.
舍恩觉得这不仅仅是一种美丽的植物。
It was a piece of the past that had nearly been lost.
这是一段几乎已经逝去的往事。
He says corn is woven with human culture, but diverse traits bred by generations of farmers began to vanish when agriculture became big business.
他说，玉米与人类文化交织在一起，但随着农业成为大规模产业，几代农民培育出来的各种特性开始消失。
For Schoen, saving that heritage wasn't just about genetic variety: "it also has cultural memory, and that's a powerful force."
对舍恩来说，保护这一遗产不仅仅是关乎基因的多样性:“它还有文化记忆，这是一种强大的力量。”
Schoen gave away seeds to anyone who wanted them, including Belle Starr and Bill McDorman, a couple who had just started a seed saving school in, of all places, Cornville, Arizona.
舍恩把种子分发给了任何需要的人，包括贝尔·斯塔尔和比尔·麦克道曼。
Starr and McDorman didn't know what to expect from their first crop of corn.
斯塔尔和麦克道曼当时还不知道他们的第一批玉米会有什么收获。
But they took a group of students out to the garden to shuck off the husks at harvest time.
但他们带了一群学生去花园，在收获季节时剥掉了苞壳。
The colorful cobs that emerged were "beyond belief," McDorman says.
麦克多曼说，出现的彩色玉米果穗“令人难以置信”。
Starr adds, "People were crying in our class, they were literally crying, it was so beautiful."
斯塔尔补充说:“我们班的人都哭了，他们真的哭了，那真是太美了。”
A year later, McDorman and Starr took over directorship of the nonprofit Native Seeds/SEARCH in Tucson.
一年后，斯塔尔和麦克道曼接管了图森市非盈利组织自然种子研究所的董事职位。
They put a photo of the multicolored corn on the Website with Greg Schoen's original caption: "Glass Gem."
他们在网站上放了一张彩色玉米的照片，并配上了格雷格·舍恩的原始标题:“玻璃宝石”。
Thousands of orders for seeds poured in.
成千上万的种子订单纷至沓来。
Other seed-saving groups took up the challenge of increasing the small stock of Glass Gem.
其他的种子保存组织也开始承担了增加少量玻璃宝石的挑战。
So many people tried to order it from a company called Seeds Trust, their Website crashed.
很多人试图从一家名为种子信托的公司订购它，结果他们的网站崩溃了。
"One ear of corn is that famous picture of Glass Gem," McDorman says.
“一穗玉米就是那幅著名的玻璃宝石画，”麦克道曼说。
"One little ear that's now changing the world... and has, in the end, been called the poster child for the whole return to heirloom seeds."
“一只正在改变世界的小玉米粒……最后，它被称为回归家庭的传家宝种子的典范。”
Starr and McDorman are now the directors of the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, a group that saves seeds by giving them away through a network of "seed stewards."
斯塔尔和麦克多曼现在是落基山种子联盟的董事，这个组织通过一个“种子管家”网络来捐赠种子，从而拯救种子。
Its mission is to protect locally adapted seeds that produce hardier, tastier — and prettier — crops, part of a larger vision for a more sustainable food system.
它的任务是保护本地适应的种子，从而生产出更耐寒、更美味、更漂亮的作物，这是更可持续的粮食系统这一更大愿景的一部分。
"When you start saving seeds from something you've grown," McDorman says, "and then plant it again, you're rejoining a ritual — a 10,000-year-old ritual — that created all the foods we eat out of wild plants."
“当你开始从你种的东西中保存种子，”麦克多曼说，“然后再种植它，你就重新加入了一个仪式——一个一万年前的仪式——它创造了我们吃的所有野生植物的食物。”
For him, the story of Glass Gem corn isn't just about food or beauty.
对他来说，玻璃宝石玉米的故事不仅仅是关于食物或美丽。
It's about protecting stories and a sense of place.
也是关于保护和思乡的故事。
问题
文中提到这种彩色的玉米叫做什么名字？
留言回复正确答案，前十名朋友可以获得红包奖励哦，赶快来试试吧！
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