flosaeris wrote:
How inappropriate. Especially because I don't own the plant,
and I am trying to do the right thing.

Thanks to the others that gave me information. I actually thought
that was the case. I am curious though, what happens when the
person doesn't know what they have. This particular plant, is from
the collection of a deceased person. A very old collector which I
understand isn't that uncommon for these decades old collectors
to have something in their collection that cites doesn't like. The
collection is now in the possession of caretaker, then a bulk was
sold at a society meeting by that caretaker. I was helping this
person find out what they had. I am very confident that all parties
involved don't know what they have. They just bought a bulk of
plants, and this one happened to be in it. The name the plant is
under didn't have any information. It was only when I asked a
friend to look in wildcat to find the parents that it came under the
current category. Then, what to do with the plant. Destroy it?
Even if the parents were legally obtained, due to the death it might
be impossible to find out.


If the plants were collected more than say 20 years ago, there isn't any
problem. Otherwise, there could be a problem. Hard to say without
knowing specifics. Practically speaking, if you don't sell or exhibit
the plants, there is also no problem. Ethically speaking, I think your
hands are clean. Legally speaking, who knows, I'm not a lawyer.

Under no circumstances destroy the plants. That is just silly. Unless
they are virused, diseased, or just plain ugly flowers (since they are
hybrids). If they were species, I wouldn't destroy them even if the
flowers were ugly. For several reasons. 1) They may be legally
imported before Appendix I took affect. 2) They may not exist in the
wild anymore and you would destroy valuable genetic diversity. 3) They
may be 'poisonous fruit' today, but legitimate in a year or two.

I'm not saying it is good to have illegally imported plants, regardless
of how stupid CITES is when it comes to material that can be easily
propagated (great for animals, remarkably illogical for plants).
Unfortunately, that is the best system we have and the one that is
currently in place, and we have to deal with it. But, once the heinous
crime of illegal importation has been committed, it makes no sense to
compound the error by destroying rare plants. In the ideal world,
collection pressure on plants would be avoided by rapid and hassle free
distribution of legally propagated material. But that world ain't here
right now.

Feel free to contact me off list ), and I'll be happy to
give you my take on the specific plant in question.



--
Rob's Rules: http://littlefrogfarm.com
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit