FYI :
"A man was charged with harvesting and selling rare orchids on eBay, including an endangered species found almost entirely in the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve...
A man searching the Web auction site for orchids realized that two of the species Gary Bienemann was selling are virtually nonexistent outside two state parks, officials said Tuesday. He called state officers, who discovered Bienemann had dozens of legally protected orchids for sale.
Among them were ribbon orchids that are found in Fakahatchee Strand and dancing-lady orchids found in Jonathan Dickinson State Park. He also illegally had 56 butterfly orchids, 26 green-fly orchids, four leafless orchids and one pale-flower polystachya, the state Department of Environmental Protection said.
Bienemann, 47, of Clearwater, was charged with unlawful harvesting, possession and sale of endangered, protected and threatened species of orchids. The man who reported him had been watching his eBay auctions for two years and suspected that Bienemann had been getting his plants from the wild, rather than growing them from seed.
The plants were being sold for about $16 to $40, depending on the species, and also at a St. Petersburg-based nursery.
...
While Bienemann wasn't caught red-handed taking the orchids out of state parks, the fact that he had the plants in his possession and planned to sell them is illegal, said Mike Owen, a state biologist at Fakahatchee."
source and full news story : http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050503/APN/505031168
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Viateur
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