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Omg wild sundews

J

jimflytrap

Guest
i live in B.C. canada and today i went to this lake. There were these small islands all over the place. They were totally loaded with sundews so i took some home it is so awsome.
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That is cool jim, something i always wanted to see, but i'm not sure you're going to get an enthusiastic response to news that you collected plants from the wild.  That's generally frowned upon, with good reason. Did you identify the species?
 
cool!
be very careful what you take home. it's usually illegal to do it and there are hefty fines involved. look up if it's alright to do next time.
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-Spec
 
oh, D. M., it's probably drosera rotundifolia, and you cant blame jim, he probably didn't know that you usually cant collect them
 
I just want to give a word of warning jimflytrap, Taking the sundews is a crime called poaching. I don't know what the laws are where you live, normally the penalty is hugh fines and even jail time. Be more careful next time you see a plant in the wild that you want to take home.
 
sorry, had no idea. i didnt identify the species. ill be more careful next time. i dont know if theres laws or not. Its a pretty remote area not many people know about the sundews.
sry.
 
Yeah Spec, you're right. Ten years ago and i would have done the same. jim, it's to protect the wild populations. Even if it is legal in your case, it's just not very conservation minded. Perhaps for that little lake there's no problem, but imagine if a hundred or even a thousand people all visit that place each year and take some with them... well, you can see it adds up.

Fortunately, sundews are very cheap and easy to come by from other growers, you can buy a packet of capensis or rotundifolia seeds and grow yourself a field of them in a couple months. So there's no need to collect them. That's good for the wild sundews, because there's little incentive to collect them.
 
sry didnt know they were so cheap. i woulda bought one. wont get any wild ones again.
 
What would be extremely cool is if you got some pics of them.
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  • #10
Half the fun of cps is learning new things, whether those things be botanical or about conservation.  Just make sure to take care of them in your collection, and learn from what everyone has mentioned concerning enjoying wild population by leaving them.  Take only pictures, leave only footprints, right. Now that they are part of your collection, make sure to keep the location information with them (town,province or county, state) since that's important if you ever provide seed to someone else.
 
  • #11
Jim, Glad to see it was a learning experience for you!

You can see why we are all concerned when you view the fact that somewhere around 95% of all Carnivorous plant habitats in the world (known) have been destroyed, de-populated, or irrevocably damaged by those that don't know better or just don't care. Even some nurseries on the web are unscrupulous and collect from the wild. (as a member of the PFT team, i can't say, but anyone who's not affiliated, feel free).

Now that you know, we are happy that you have joined our community and won't be doing it again.

That being said, do you know how to care fo your new arrivals? What can you tell us about them? We would love pictures, but even in their absence, we would love a very nice description!

If you don't have a way to post them, let us know (just post here) and someone will step up to the plate and host them for you. Now that you have them of course you should share the love by letting them seed, and spreading it throughout the hobby. (even if it is a common sundew, there are people who will want it&#33
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  • #12
Hey Jim maybe after the plants you collected have sent out off-shots or seeds, you could put some of them back in their habitat. Alsom, if you know how, you can even put back plants you have propagated from the plants you collected. Go ahead and redeem yourself.
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  • #13
Hi Jim

Welcome to the forums!
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You can see that these forums are places to learn lots of new things. Now you know that field-collecting is a no-no! The laws protect these rare plants and you don't want those fines. :eek:

You might want to try to I.D. your sundews...always nice to know. I'd start looking for pics of D. rotundifolia like Spec said and compare. Then note the date and location for future reference.

That is really awsome you have a chance to see them in the wild. Many of us are not so lucky.

Suzanne
 
  • #14
LOs Angels Traphole,

Part of the problem of planting plants back in the wild (taken from the same location) is the possiblility of introducing some greenhouse pests into the wild.
 
  • #15
jimflytrap, I hope I didn't come across to harsh in my last post, I just wanted you to see how serious this is and how much trouble you could get into. I applaud you on learning from your mistake.

The best thing to do now is to make sure you know how to care for this plant. Read the info on this site and grow it well. Then when you get seeds from it, take the seeds to the island.

Good luck
If you have any questions about your plant you can ask here or send me a message.
 
  • #16
Put em back if you just realizaed how cheap, nothing against japanese people, but lets say theres a japanese person, whos lived in japan his whole life, and someone comes and puts him in america. Thats what you did to the sundews. Put them back, do it.
 
  • #17
No, don't put them back. That is a little too much shock for them to be transplanted twice in such a short time.
What you did was a perfectly natural response, and to my knowledge, unless specifically protected, was not even illegal(unless, of course, you crossed the border). Dionaea in the US is protected as are a few Sarracenia and P. ionantha, but no Drosera. Honestly, I am shooting from the hip as I don't know Canada's laws.
If these are D. rotundifolia(flat rosette?), some alternatives would be:
1) Collect some seed if available-that way you don't disturb the plants
2) Collect a few leaves and use them as cuttings to produce new plants-again, leaving the parent plants in the wild

Plants with location data are always sweeter than just, "D. rotundifolia" so try and propagate the plants you took and trade seed, propagated plants or get the seed into a seed bank.
I'm not trying to advocate wild collecting in general, but collecting a little bit of material can be down without harm to the population.

Regards,

Joe
 
  • #18
I agree with the Griffin. Also, while I certainly don't condone wild collection, even a moderately healthy population of drosera rotundifolia or intermedia will grow new individuals in the empty location within a year or two. In the bogs around here, you can barely keep from stepping on the drosera since they're so prolific. I forget which book said it, but when nothing else is growing in a bog, you can usually still find some drosera. So IMO jimflytrap shouldn't feel too bad, doesn't need to take any action in "repairing the damage", and most importantly should keep the location his secret so he can enjoy them for years to come.
 
  • #19
I agree, this was a learning experience and he doesn't need to go do any 'pennance' by putting them back. Maybe sew some seed, maybe get the seed out in the community, but he doesn't need to put them back, and he certainly didn't commit the act while 'knowing better' he knows now, he has learned, and he will do whats right.

now, let's not scare off Jim!
 
  • #20
Wow Jim, I try and try to get a thread going and nothing happens.  You manage to get people talking and exchanging views without trying
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.  Good job.  That's what these forums are for.

Going back to something Joe (The Griffin) said, "Plants with location data are always sweeter than just D. rotundifolia" .  Since you now have the plants, keep the location information with them when you trade or give the plants and seeds away.  A lot of people like to have plants from different places to increase the genetic differsity of their collection.

Please post again (especially if you have pics) and let us know how the plants are doing.  Even if they are doing bad let us know.  We may be able to help you figure out the problem and get them going again.
 
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