Heat control system and energy flow in the skunk cabbage

臭鼬甘蓝肉穗花序的温度保持在20摄氏度左右，尽管温度变化，包括低于冰点。这种臭鼬菜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，我们对臭鼬菜的地下器官（特别是茎部）的功能有了很多了解。从使用臭甘蓝活体的实验和模拟来看，臭甘蓝的茎难以将热量从肉穗花序传递到球茎，并且容易将热量从球茎引入肉穗花序。由于臭鼬菜的茎长约20 cm，能为肉穗花序提供稳定的地下热量，因此茎对肉穗花序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.