Re: NEPENTHES are dangerous to endemic flora + fauna

From: bs (bs719491@oak.cats.ohiou.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 23 1997 - 11:21:39 PDT


Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 14:21:39 -0400
From: bs <bs719491@oak.cats.ohiou.edu>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg4100$foo@default>
Subject: Re: NEPENTHES are dangerous to endemic flora + fauna


>snip<

>Manfred wrote:
>>Jan wrote:
>> 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.

>But this doesn't completely avoid any danger: Male plants could possibly
>fertilize endemic species and thus introduce unwanted hybrids.

>snip<

It seems that most CP'ers are, at the very least, conscientious about
their plants. This being the case, wouldn't it be a fairly simple
matter to just cut off any reproductive attempts by the plant. This
would eliminate the risk of either pollinating or being pollinated by
any indigenous plants. I do realize, however, that this would be
impossible to legislate and wouldn't help the authorities' decision
much.

>snip<
>Jan wrote:
>Even if you lost control over your plants entirely, they could probably >not destroy more than agriculture and forestry already have.
>snip<

No offense, but I think this is a very dangerous logic. Destroying a
small, but nonetheless important part of the indigenous ecosystem would
still constitute an immeasurable loss. Comparing the damage potential
of a single introduced plant to the devastation caused by the
installation of a monoculture crop is like comparing a single murder to
a genocide. Both are bad, both are injustifiable, they just occur on
different scales. I say this mainly to illustrate a point, not to
ruffle feathers. I am far from an expert on the dangers here, and don't
know what kind of a threat a nep would pose in that environment (I'm
just struggling to keep mine alive in the plant equivalent of intensive
care). Even though it may not be any _more_ dangerous than other
introduced weeds, that doesn't justify its introduction into the wild.
This is not to say that I'm against growing neps outdoors, I think that
if they are maintained properly, they could be harmless.

regards,

-- 
brandon

"There's a fine line between clever and stupid" - someone in Spinal Tap

http://oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu/personal/bschanba.html



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