Heat control system and energy flow in the skunk cabbage

尽管温度发生了变化，包括低于冰点，但臭味卷心菜的顶端温度仍保持在20摄氏度左右。这种臭甘蓝的温控结构具有节能的特点。作为提供节能特性的机制之一，我们对臭甘蓝地下器官(特别是茎部分)的功能有了大量的了解。从利用臭鼬甘蓝活体进行的实验和模拟来看，臭鼬甘蓝的茎很难将热量从球茎传递到球茎，而很容易将球茎的热量引入球茎。由于臭鼬甘蓝的茎长约20 cm，能为茎叶提供地下稳定的热量，因此茎秆对茎叶的温度稳定性有较大贡献。

The temperature of the spadix of the skunk cabbage is maintained at around 20 degrees Celsius in spite of a change of the temperature including below the freezing point. The temperature control structure of this skunk cabbage possesses an energy-saving characteristic. As one of the mechanism to provide the energy-saving characteristic, we got a lot of knowledge about the function of the underground organ (particularly a stalk part) of the skunk cabbage. From the experiment using the living body of the skunk cabbage and the simulation, the stalk of the skunk cabbage is hard to convey the heat from a spadix to a corm and is easy to introduce heat from a corm into the spadix. Because the length of the stalk of the skunk cabbage is around 20 cm, and it can supply stable heat of the underground to a spadix, it seems that the stalk does large contribution in the temperature stability of the spadix.