orchid in the wild, shall we own them?

[Silla--glamour]

Hi, orchids are abundant in the wild, wildest flower display the most beautiful combination of colors. The advantage to search orchids in the wild is to acquire some new and strange specimen for flask shaking. We should not pluck them and plant them in our home, as this will cause a depletion in species in the wild. I prefer artificially propagated specimen as this helps to preserve the nature resource. What do you think?

[cb977]

I agree...no plucking!

[flhiker]

:iagree:

[WhiteRabbit]

ditto that

[Psyguy10]

I think people shouldn't collect wild species, it simply upsets the natural ecology of the area and does further damage to the linage of the species.

But under certain circumstances I can understand it: such as a forest about to be cut down or a woodland paved over, then I think it's necessary to collect them to help keep the species alive.

Although, in general, no snatchin' man!

[isurus79]

I dunno. I pick wild orchids whenever I can here in Hawaii. Given they are not native, but if it is a common species and you can give it a good home, why not? I'm always amazed by how much better these plants grow when I take care of them compared to leaving them in the wild. And lets not forget, if you see a big plant and only take a backbulb, I think that's ok too. Rare plants or really tough to grow ones, I'm in agreement with: No picking.

[JBOrchids]

In protected areas which aren't about to be cut or burnt down, of course there should be no plucking. But it is a crying shame that laws and regs now effectively prevent the salvage of orchids from habitats which are about to be destroyed. Kenni

[Silla--glamour]

Yes we should preserve the ecology, however if there are any deforestation going on, we can salvage them home, this should be understandable and is reasonable. My point is we shouldn't encourage plucking for commercial use out of human greed that would affects our ecology, that's not right.

[peeweelovesbooks]

Just to play devil's advocate, don't you think that periodically introducing or re-introducing wild orchids in private collections for breeding purposes ultimately contributes to the overall gene pool of cultivated orchids in a positive way???

The more I read up on orchid culture and hybridization, the more I want to focus on growing orchid species exclusively. Not that I'm knocking hybrids for sure, but I tend to think that such extensive hybridization and cloning of orchids generation after generation ultimately leads to weak plants. I mean, if we never used wild orchids, we would essentially be using the same gene pool over and over again, no?

Why not use wild orchids JUDICIOUSLY to improve the gene pool and therefore quality of the plants we have? I'd rather buy an original division of a species, or a wild orchid, or primary hybrids, if I have the chance,than a mericlone, quite frankly.

Just some thoughts.......

[cb977]

Devil's advocate, huh?



This could be an interesting thread as long as we remember that everybody must play nicely...yes?