Southen african drosera

[Tim]

My neighbor from South Africa is a lithops grower (he inherited a farm with lots of nice kinds), and he emailed me wanting to start importing plants.

If there are any Southern African Drosera, or anything else anyone wants, make a list, and let's see what we can do. Lots of those growers are isolated, and don't have email, so maybe we can find something that isn't readily available here.

 

[Pyro]

I hate to presume but this sounds an awful lot like an encouragment of wild collecting. Remember that almost all species of CP are threatened in some form or other and I do believe that many of the S. African species are extremly rare. Please correct me if I am wrong, I am just not too sure about having a post that seems to be endourcing a practice that could result in more threat to these magnificent plants.

 

[Tim]

In the case of South Africa, they are as strict as a first world country, in my experience stricter than the USA. There are lots of hobbyists over there that have things legally. It's just that information doesn't flow so readily in places where the telephone connections are like what you see on the Andy Griffith show.

So in Zambia or somewhere maybe, but not likely if going through South Africa.

Africa isn't synonomous with crime and lack of concern for the environment, although it's easy to think that way due to our media coverage of it.

 

[GEORGE-CP]

Tim, why don't you just find out what you can get and then let everone know.

 

[Tim]

Because it would be 50 times the work, and I'm not interested in a profit.

 

[Pyro]

Tim,

I was not trying to imply that Africa is crime ridden. It was just that the wording seemed to be a little open ended and I wanted to make sure. If you say that the material is all legally collected and you are just try to work as a networking hub so to speak then I believe you.

I apologize if I came off as accusing, that was not my intent

 

[Tim]

No problem. South Africa did the first heart transplant, etc...and everything in Agriculture and Horticulture is European standard or better, it's just the communication systems that are lousey. The more plants we have scattered all over the world, though, the better. I thought of Drosera because of ease of shipping gemmae.

Regards

 

[Pyro]

I'm not sure that the S. African species produce gemmae. They are still good candidates though because most have very thick roots and can recover from them should the actual plant part die.

If I were to guess I would think that people would be interested in the winter growing species (cistiflora, pauciflora, hilaris, etc) but those are plants that are more for the advanced and experienced grower. You might want to check the tacked post at the top of the sundew forum started by Tamlin, I think it discusses almost all of the S. African species that people are interested it. Might want to try contacting Tamlin too as he would know better than I do what from there is good.

 

[Tim]

That's good to know about gemmae.

What started me thinking was a post by Tamlin some time ago where he said that some spp don't even have pictures on the web, and I assume some spp. aren't even available to experts here.

If that's not the case, my idea would be a waste of time.

 

[Pyro]

You are correct that many species are not available to experts here in the States. I think if you could get good, labled material with location information it would be properly cared for by quite a few of our members; Tamlin, Pthiel, Pingman, etc. I would also enjoy getting anything that I could pass on to some friends who are not only great at caring for rarer species but also getting them into TC and distributing them out to experts.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

I agree that field collection should not be done wholesale, but with the rapidly shrinking biodiversity, I feel that a sensitive collection now is the best chance of maintaining these endangered species for posterity.

If a small amount of seed can be secured and reproduced by skilled growers, and placed with reputable hrebariums additional future impact on the populations can be avoided.

I realize that some may disagree with my opinion, but I stand by it.

 

[cephalotus88]

I agree with the collection of seed. To me, its not much of taking/wild collecting, seems more like ensuring the survival of a few rare species, as a couple replies have stated.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Regarding import of such seed, please see my post in the General Discussions Forum.