I found out about the list through the orchid mailing list
(email me if you want the address...)
I live in Durham, NC, home of the (former) world champion,
er, NCAA basketball champions...;)
One reason I wanted to be part of the discussion was that NC
is one area in the country (or world, for that matter) that
has carnivorous plants as _natives_. Out near the coast, one
can find venus fly traps growing in the bogs and damp forests,
and here at Duke, at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, they have duplicated
one of these bogs. There used to be vft's growing here, but people
stole them (pitcher plants too :( ), so they didn't replace them,
for fear (justified, of course) that they would just disappear too.
It's a shame, but some people are just jerks.
It's like the problem in the Northeast (I'm originally from MA) where
the ladyslipper orchid grows wild, and (nationally, I guess) it's been
outlawed to dig them up and move them or plant them in pots for
personal use, due to the huge numbers of people in the past that
took the plants and the population dwindled to near extinction in
Mass...
I'd like to get involved sometime in preserving the natural habitats of
native plants, but, for the time being, must hold back and keep my
own specimens in the yard at bay for lack of time...
Soon, though...
later,
andy infante