Carnivorous Plant Conservation

A WORD ON CONSERVATION:

Carnivorous plants and their native habitats are in danger of disappearing. In fact, this is the case worldwide. carnivorous plant’s exist in many forms across the globe and for the most part, the ecosystems where we find them are very similar. These are usually wet, sunny, bog like environments with poor soils. This leads people to erroneously think that the land is useless until drained and converted into farmlands or housing developments, etc. This is certainly the case here in the Southeastern U.S. where an estimated 90% of carnivorous plant habitat has already been irreversibly altered.

Carnivorous plant’s in general are environmentally sensitive plants to begin with. Imagine the purity of a bog habitat filled with percolating rainwater tainted by urban run-off containing petroleum, sewage, fertilizer salts and herbicides. Homes are often built with foreign soils to build up the foundation. And of course the grass is always greener over the septic tank!

Now, we aren’t against people living in wild areas entirely, but the wholesale destruction of native habitats for the almighty dollar is just sickening. Right now in the Florida panhandle, large “developers” are snapping up vast acreages of former commercial timberlands. They’ll develop something new all right…another endangered species most likely.

This may sound all doom and gloom, but there is hope. Some areas of native carnivorous plant habitats have been preserved…at least for now. The Apalachicola National Forest is about an hour drive from NFCP, and is one of the largest remaining strong holds of carnivorous plant habitat in North America. Here, they are federally protected with hefty fines for those who would poach. A few other good souls have bought lands rich with carnivorous plant’s to preserve as well.

What is poaching? Taking something from land that is not yours is one definition. Federally protected Pitcher Plants in the National Forest should be left alone! We encourage you to go see them in habitat; it’s a unique experience to see how beautiful they are in situ. But take pictures, not pitchers! When you see how many there sometimes are concentrated in just one field, you may think, “There’s sooo many! It won’t hurt if I just take this one…and this one...Okay, and one of these too!” That’s like saying your vote doesn’t count come Election Day. Taking just one or two plants adds up when you consider people from around the world come to visit and think the same thing as well. Besides, wild collected plants don’t always do so well in captivity. Think about the shock of going from native soil to man-made potting mix. Cultivated plants have never had to make that transition. Not to mention the possibility of introducing wild pests and diseases to your garden. In short, poaching is a bad idea!

So, where did NFCP get all these plants with out wild collecting (poaching). Well, there are reputable nurserymen throughout the world who’ve been swapping, breeding, tissue culturing these rare plants for decades. Some plants entered the trade by way of conservation minded biologists working through Universities and Botanical Gardens. These people usually obtained permits to collect specimens from the wild. Eventually, the offspring of those plants filtered into the private collections of conscientious growers like us at NFcarnivorous plant. Check out our links to nurseries we’ve had good experiences with.