California cactus crime

[IanW]

Saw this on the BBC, it made me chuckle somewhat:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7584541.stm

You'd think in somewhere like California they'd have no end of space to grow them big like with the Homebase Grusonii's such that they'd simply not be worth stealing. I'm surprised they fetch so much over there where they can easily be grown outside with a free root run.

[lenbell]

I bet they don't fetch those prices in American Cacti Nurseries.

[CoronaCactus]

In that same general area, habitat poaching has gotten so bad, that wireless video cameras have been/are being installed! I think some of the areas covered flow into Joshua Tree National Park.

This is the same area i go to for my habitat explorations...it would pain me greatly to see holes dug in the ground where a cactus used to be

[Chris43]

The idea of microchipping a grusonii is somewhat bizarre. Mind you the planting they showed was also somewhat strange. Maybe if they had used bog standard Feros from just down the road in Joshua Tree or Anzo-Borrego they wouldn't have had the same problems.

I did have to check the date, and pinch myself to make sure it wasn't 1st April.

[Peter]

£2,200 for a 2ft wide Grusonii? I'll happily flog them the 2ft wide one that I bought for less than thirty quid from Homebase a few weeks ago!

[Nick]

Presume y`all saw this too. If stealing cultivated grusonii`s is bad, this must be a capital offence! Hasta la vista, Baby!Mexico suffers
NIck

[IanW]

Yeah, saw that too Nick, that's rather more sad though