Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 17:49:41 From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3998$foo@default> Subject: Re: NEPENTHES are dangerous to endemic flora + fauna
Dear Hermann,
> Do Nepenthes present a real danger for our flora and fauna, taking into
> consideration that our climate is somewhat comparable with the climate of
> Nepenthes' Natural Habitat like Madagaskar or Indonesia/Malaysia.
You intend to cultivate the plants in a greenhouse, don't you?
If you want to grow _Nepenthes_ outdoors, just make sure you have
only male individuals, so no seeds are produced to spread the plants
beyond the area under your control. The weedy species you intend to
cultivate can be a danger to the indigenous flora only by invasion of
suitable habitats, and this is only possible by seed. The fact that
they can climb other plants for support or capture animals for
nutrition is immaterial in terms of conservation. A single introduced
dog, cat, or rat will extinguish more animal biomass than the largest
_Nepenthes_ colony that could possibly grow in the whole Dominican
Republic. _Nepenthes_ is no more dangerous to the local ecosystem
than any other introduced weed. Even if you lost control over your
plants entirely, they could probably not destroy more than agriculture
and forestry already have.
Kind regards
Jan
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:31:12 PST