>Does anyone have information on the legality of selling this species. I was
>recently told that it is a federally endangered species and cannot be bought
>or sold, or cross state lines as this would violate the Lacey Act. Plants
>could be given away, but that even paying postage to the sender made the
>transaction illegal. On the other hand, I was told that the Lacey Act
>specifically exempts plants and was never intended to cover them.
Cliff, and others that are interested. Darlingtonia was as of one month ago
only listed as a CITES Appendix II plant. This basically only means that if
you wish to export it you need to get a CITES export permit from the Fish and
Wildlife Service or import it with a CITES export permit issued by the
exporting country. In the USA, it is legal to sell it. You might be
surprised to hear that it is also legal to sell plants such as N. rajah and
N. khasiana which are only subject to CITES.
Here in the USA, it is currently illegal to sell S. oreophilla, S. rubra
jonseii, and S. rubra alabamensis and P. ionantha without proper permits and
records (this applies to seed, cuttings, anything that is alive _and_ dead).
These plants are listed as being endangered under the Endangered Species
Act, which is totally different from CITES. Darlingtonia is not listed. As
of a month ago (someone posted it on thelist some time ago), there was also a
proposal submitted to include S. leucophylla, S. rubra wherryi, D. muscipula,
and P. planifolia. I don't know if this porposal has been accepted yet.
>Whatever
>laws apply to Darlingtonia (and also certain Sarracenia) as it exists in the
>wild, does this also cover divisions of cultivated plants, seeds, tissue
>culture material, etc?
As alrady mentioned, the ESA does not cover Darlingtonia but it does cover
the Sarraceniae and Pinguicula mentioned above. It makes no mention of
tissue culture, (a clear case of the law not keeping up with progess), and I
personnally would treat tissue culture as live plants, i.e. I would not sell
anything produced in that manner without a permit until an amendment has been
added to the ESA specifically excluding tissue cultured plants.
On the other hand, CITES excludes tissue and flasked cultures from requiring
certification, but here you run into the added problem of APHIS (when
importing cultures into the US) that treats the cultures as regular plants
and fumigates them even though they are sterile - go figure..... Another
example of the laws not keeping up with progress.
>A few years ago CPN was unsure of the laws concerning Nepenthes seeds and
the
>seed bank would not offer them for fear of the CITES regulations, even
though
>as best we could determine seed of CITES appendix 2 species was perfectly
>legal to import and distribute.
And they are perfectly legal to import. Appendix I Sarracenia are another
matter.
Look for a clarification in the next issue of CPN.
I would welcome any comments.
Christoph