Eric Hunt wrote:
Nick,

Interesting points - but the one thing that kept popping up in my head:

Do *YOU* want the same "take-no-prisoners war-on-drugs" federal enforcement
officers knocking down your doors and trashing your greenhouse because
someone "reported" you as having some of these banned plants you are
advocating? The number of innocent people KILLED during mistaken drug raids
is well documented - are you ready to die for your orchids?

Extreme examples, I know, but I put them out to make people stop and think.

Hi Eric,

No, that wouldn't please me, but I don't think it is inevitable. There
are currently ornamental plants that Americans cannot obtain legally,
but I haven't heard of anyone killed during greenhouse raids to look
for Aztekium hintonii or Geohintonia mexicana. In the long term, I
suspect that enforcement would not have to be much more severe than it
is now, but we would need to change our priorities a bit. Now, when a
new species is discovered, our priority is to get it into cultivation
as soon as possible. That frenzy creates both motive and opportunity
to smuggle wild plants.

If we were resigned to the fact that P. kovachii would never be
available to grow legally, there would be less incentive to collect the
wild plants. By way of comparison, I'm sure there is illegal
collecting of Mexican cacti like Aztekium hintoni, but since Mexico
does not permit exporting the species, most ethical U.S. cactus growers
do not even try to obtain one. They are available in Europe,
presumably derived from smuggled plants and seed, but I've never seen
it for sale here in the US. On the other hand, I have seen many large
wild-collected plants of Ariocarpus fissuratus for sale (legally
collected in Texas), even though artificially propagated seedlings are
readily available.

I suspect that with rare, horticulturally desirable plants, we can
either have free and easy international trade, or we can have
relatively secure wild populations, but not both.

Nick