Wild collected plants for sale

Robert St-Jean (robert.st-jean@es2.es.emr.ca)
Fri, 03 Feb 1995 12:23:55 -0500

Although this does not relate to CP's, since
we were on the subject of plants collected
from the wild for commercial sale, I'd like to
relate some information on the sale of wild
collected native orchid species.

I have recently attended a lecture given
by several orchid conservationists.
They claim that native orchid species such
as the ladyslipper orchid sold through the
mail by commercial growers in Canada is
likely to be collected from the wild at some
point before distribution. If asked, the
grower is likely to claim that the plants are
not wild-collected. The conservationists
base their claims on the fact that there are
no distributors of artificially propagated
plants dealing on any large scale in Canada
at this time.

R.S.