1 A woodland wonder

Chapter One A WOODLAND WONDER "No WAY!" Leah gasped. She couldn't believe her eyes. This was like finding a fairy at the edge of your backyard, only better. She leaned her bike gently against a beech tree. As she walked across the woodland clearing, she kept her gaze fixed on the tiny plant she'd spotted. The closer

第一章林地奇观“不可能！”利亚喘着粗气。 她简直不敢相信自己的眼睛。 这就像在你后院的边缘发现了一个仙女，只是更好。 她把自行车轻轻地靠在一棵山毛榉树上。 当她穿过林地空地时，她的目光一直盯着她发现的那棵小植物。 越接近

she got, the more excited she became. She was looking at a ghost orchid! Leah had seen pictures of ghost orchids on the internet and in books, but she'd never thought she would ever see a real one. And she'd definitely never thought she would see one growing so close to her home in Oxfordshire, in the south of England. Ghost orchids were incredibly rare and endangered. In fact, they were so hard to find in her country that people had thought they were extinct.

她变得越兴奋。 她看到的是幽灵兰花！利亚在网上和书上看到过幽灵兰花的照片，但她从没想过自己会看到真正的兰花。 她绝对没有想过会在离她位于英格兰南部牛津郡的家这么近的地方看到一棵树。 鬼兰非常罕见，濒临灭绝。 事实上，在她的国家很难找到它们，以至于人们认为它们已经灭绝了。

She would have to keep the plant's location a secret, so it didn't get dug up and stolen. Leah didn't mind. After all, she already had another big secret, which none of her friends or family even suspected… She knelt down next to the ghost orchid. It was white and delicate. No wonder it's called a ghost orchid, she thought. Unlike so many other plants, it had no green in it. Leah was an expert on plants, so she knew what that meant. Green plants contained chlorophyll, the substance that turned sunlight into the energy they needed to grow. But the little ghost orchid got its energy in quite a different way. It sucked up nutrition from the rotting vegetation

她必须对工厂的位置保密，这样它就不会被挖出来偷了。 利亚并不介意。毕竟，她已经有了另一个大秘密，而她的朋友和家人都没有想到……她跪在鬼兰旁边。 它洁白而精致。 难怪它叫鬼兰，她想。 与许多其他植物不同，它没有绿色。 利亚是植物方面的专家，所以她知道这意味着什么。 绿色植物含有叶绿素，这种物质可以将阳光转化为它们生长所需的能量。 但小鬼兰获得能量的方式却截然不同。 它从腐烂的植被中吸取营养

beneath it, and from the fungi growing on the beech tree roots. That was why ghost orchids always grew in shady places. "So cool," Leah whispered. This was the luckiest find of her life. Ghost orchids weren't just rare—they spent most of their lives underground. Some of them only sent up a flower every ten years! Leah knew it was almost a miracle that she had happened to see this one.

在它下面，以及生长在山毛榉树根上的真菌。 这就是为什么鬼兰总是生长在阴凉的地方。 “太酷了，”利亚小声说。 这是她一生中最幸运的发现。 鬼兰不仅罕见，它们大部分时间都在地下生长。 有些人每十年才送一朵花！利亚知道，她碰巧看到这幅画，简直是个奇迹。

But it was time to check on her own plants. Leah had a greenhouse full of them at home, and they all needed care and attention. She cycled home as fast as she could, still feeling excited about finding the ghost orchid. She skidded to a halt outside the greenhouse. As she reached for the door, she stopped in her tracks. Glowing on the glass was a compass symbol.

但现在是时候检查一下她自己的植物了。 利亚家里有一大棚的花，它们都需要照顾。 她以最快的速度骑车回家，仍然为找到鬼兰感到兴奋。 她在温室外面滑了一下停了下来。 当她伸手去开门时，她停住了脚步。 玻璃上发光的是一个指南针符号。