Tecophilaea Cyanocrocus

Harold Koopowitz hkoopowi@uci.edu
Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:18:31 PDT
Well said Jane.
Harold

At 11:12 AM 9/4/2011, you wrote:
>At 03:46 AM 9/4/2011, you wrote:
> >Hi Alberto,   I cant imagine how anyone could justify taking something so
> >beautiful from its native environment, unless it was its last chance of
> >survival. What an earth were those Netherlanders thinking..... I have never
> >seen these little sapphires before & i was wondering if any sustainable
> >population survived in the wild, once the original population was removed ?
>
>
>First, as I mentioned in an earlier post, at least two native
>populations have been discovered recently in the wild. The exact
>locations are not being disclosed by the botanists who found them,
>for obvious reasons..
>
>Second, although it is true that some Tecophilaea cyanocrocus were
>taken to Europe, John Watson (as always) had something memorable to
>say about that, to the effect that the apparent extinction of the
>species was more likely caused by overgrazing than by "spade-wielding
>peasants in the pay of villainous Dutchmen." If you have been to the
>former habitat of this species, you will know that much of the land
>is now covered mostly by vegetation that is either thorny or
>poisonous or both, almost everything else having been devoured by the
>thousands of goats kept there by rural people who maintain them
>largely for cheese production. (Fortunately for our interests, the
>showy amaryllids of the area are poisonous.)
>
>The introduction of Old World livestock into the Americas is surely
>the cause of a large proportion of the plant extinctions that have
>occurred there, not to mention violent and rapid changes in plant
>communities and subsequent effects on the fauna. Something similar
>happened in the Old World millennia ago when pastoralism took hold.
>
>Jane McGary
>Portland, Oregon, USA
>
>
>
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