Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 21:43:50 -0400 From: Tom Massey <massey@fmhi.usf.edu> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1020$foo@default> Subject: RE: selling wild S. flava...
>>I understand them to say that they're doing
> >this to save the plants who are threatened by habitat destruction.
> >Opinions?
> >
>
> This is, unfortunately, a common occurrence in Florida, one of the areas
> where S. flava is common. Roadside construction and other development
> do threaten plants that grow there. There are three things to note here:
(SNIP)
> 2. the roadsides where many carnies now grow are an artificially amenable
> environment. In the wild, the carnies tend to grow in widely scattered
> wet meadows within pine forests. The roadsides end up duplicating this
> environment in continuous strips, allowing many carnies to establish
> themselves in numbers not seen in the woods even near the roadsides where
> they grow.
Nice to think about it this way, but unfortunately not really true. Yes,
you can find Sarrs. (and lots of pings) in the roadside ditches - until
they rescrape as they do every couple of years or so. The roadside ditch
populations are largely remnants of nearby fields rather than newly
established expansions of species. Your other points are on the mark.
Tom in Fl.
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