K Barrett N Calif, USA
Several people have claimed that once "legal" P. kovachii seedlings go on general release in the outside world, those who own "illegal" plants will be able to let them (or their progeny) surface without fear of detection.
That statement is incorrect. We have been told that Manuel Arias has only five legally-collected plants, each of which has been identified by a name, and that these names are on record as being the parents of any particular legally-exported flask. In order to be able to trace all legal progeny of these 5 plants, all the Peruvians have to do is subject the one leaf from each of the 5 parent plants to a simple DNA-typing procedure, placing the results on record, and store the surplus DNA in a fridge.
Demonstrating that any individual plant (or seedling) was NOT the progeny of a cross between two of these 5 plants would then be a piece of cake.... the sort of procedure that a competent technician could do in a well-stocked lab. This procedure has become routine in child-support and child-custody disputes since the test became cheap enough to be affordable.
If the Peruvian authorities (or anyone else) wanted to demonstrate the illegality of an individual plant, they could do so, and will be in a position to do so for generations to come. The real question is, will they want to ?
Cheers, Peter O'Byrne in Singapore
_________________________________________________________________
FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar � get it now! http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/
_______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
