On the subject of Aldrovanda, I would like to correspond with anyone who
has had success with this plant either 1) from seed or 2) in vitro. I
am working on both at the moment and would be interested in others'
experience.
On the subject brought up by Loyd regarding an American Nusery who had
CITES problems in 1992 with shipments to the UK, it may have been me.
At the time, I was operating HUNGRY PLANTS CP Nursery and tissue culture
lab. I sent many shipments of artificially propagated VFTs, Nepenthes
and others to a couple nurseries in the UK, Germany and Mexico during
that year (over 100,000 total). During that year, two VFT shipments
were stopped in the UK, because the RECIPIENT was lacking paperwork.
Our CITES permits were in perfect order and the plants in perfect shape,
but unfortunately, the way the system works (or doesn't in this case),
the plants were deemed "property of the crown." Aside from losing
thousands of dollars, time and frustration, the plants were never
returned to me! I heard rumors later that they were sent to Kew
Gardens, grown on and sold!!!! I guess her majesty really liked those
VFTs! At any rate, it shows a real problem with the system. Here I
was, granted the CITES permit for exporting artifically propagated
plants and doing just that, but some logistical problem in the receiving
country prevented these artifically propagated plants from being used!
What a shame. What little the agriculture ministry would say was that
they were only following protocol! These such loop holes in the CITES
program encourage some of the illegal activity that has occurred in the
past year. Oh well, I guess the folks who still dig from the wild and
export "undercover" without CITES are not complaining!
Incidently, HUNGRY PLANTS is currently not in operation in case anyone missed
previous announcements. I still get lots of catalog requests!
Ron Gagliardo
Atlanta Botanical Garden