Cactus Poaching Exposé
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ม.ค. 2022
- In this episode we come upon a massive shipment of the rare Mexican Cactus Pelecyphora asseliformis that was seized by US Fish and Wildlife en route to markets overseas, who then sent it to a University Nursery in West Texas to be cared for until a further plan if action can be decided.
Seemingly unbeknownst to many, plant poaching is a big business and very actively occurring, especially in arid environments, all over the world. Due to the fact that succulent plants are able to store energy and go without water for extended periods of time, they are one of the easiest plants to rip out of habitat and keep alive for the time between being poached and shipped to market or sold online. Sadly, most of these plants require exquisite and precise care and most do not end up surviving their new "homes" when sold to collectors.
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#peleycyphora #Astrophytum #poaching - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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That intro proves Al could read the telephone book and it would be entertaining.
Durrrr man sounds funny me like..... ( the modern lemming )
As a big fan of local papers in NZ, I rate the Cook County Chronicle 👍👍
I love how Tony can go from homeless people in LA taking dumps on walls to admiring an ariocarpus in a fraction of a second. Truly a master at his work.
I'm actually opening a spiritual retreat in Sheboygan next month where we will teach others to master these subjects.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt I can't think of a better place to discuss the Venn diagram of LA wall dumps and rare cacti than Sheboygan.
All just species in their natural environs
Growing from seed is incredibly rewarding, much better than the small dopamine hit you get when you receive a fully grown plant in the mail. I think the problem is impatience, just as much as the other points you mentioned. We live in a world where you can get pretty much anything, pretty much instantly. Most people don't have the patience to wait a year or more for a plant they want. Plus, attention spans are so short that they probably won't even want it anymore by the time it's grown!
Make a t-shirt advocating growing plants from seed and I'll buy it. I'll always promote propagation. Mush love!
plus the depression of when it dies feels much less strong for a shorter period when you can just start again from seed, opposed to realizing you lost your plant and all your money and learned nothing!
I think you can get a pass though if you're buying plants in order to eventually get seed from them. In my case I've been getting a bunch of lithops species in order to hybridize/crossbreed them. Rather than starting with seed and then breeding whatever I get out of it.
Agreed! From seed is always super rewarding!
@Lucas N. Yeah, sure, that's fine as long as the plant is purchased from a grower rather than a poacher, and that can be verified. Not saying that about you specifically, just in general.
For sure
When I was a young boy my dad showed me where some peyote grows in northern New Mexico. He was clear about the idea that people will come and take all of it if I told anyone. I am 45 and still know where to see them growing.
Peyote don't occur in Northern New Mexico, unless they were intentionally planted. But also, they wouldn't survive the 10 degree nights in the winter. I'm fine with people believing that though if it will keep them from poaching it in the few places it actually occurs in the US only in the state of Texas.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt I read taking the tops off instead of the entire plant will let them grow back, how true is that?
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt
I dunno, I assume someone planted them. I knew of a place where someone spread mushroom spores and they grew in the pasture on cow dung.
@@BeaverThingify so long as you don't cut too low, yes. The plant is essentially just a leafless photosynthetic stem with dormant axillary buds anywhere the stem is still green. Make no mistake, you're still stressing the shit out of the plant and leaving it susceptible to pathogens like fungi and insects, but it can technically still survive. If you cut too low though, or don't make a clean cut, or cut at an odd angle, you don't leave any axillary buds that can send out new shoots though, and the plant dies.
@@jk-76 could be!
Same situation here in South Africa with succulent poaching. It's a crying shame. Now I know what to do with all the poop my dog produces...
What is even worse is the fact that its harder to get a permit to collect for herbaniums than it is to get a permit to clear land...
Its been a rough couple years starting up my unique business but it is finally getting traction in the market(foot traffic and all). Then today I check out my favorite botanist vlog to find that you are trying to muscle in on my dog shit mailing service. How dare you Joey. Worse off, you've given the amazing concept to the rest of the world. I expect competition to begin localizing out: "buy local dog shit(and avoid the guy that mails it from over state lines)" or "Reduce your carbon trail and buy local dogshit." However I foresaw the rise in competition and stepped up my product line to the next level. We now offer organic dogshit as a mailing option in 2022.
Just stay out of my domain, nothing says fuck you like concentrated cat piss. A small swatch of frequently sprayed material (thanks kitties) in a plastic bag releases an aroma beyond description when opened. The receiver WILL open it out of curiosity.
God, I love you guys, such inspiring entrepreneurs. My cat died on Christmas eve, or I would be gearing up an Etsy shop for gourmet French paté du merde de chat. Or maybe some creative jewelry ideas!
* goes out to see what the neighbor's cats are up to *
Best fuckin’ comment I’ve read in a year!! LMFAO!!!
From the 'Welwitschia' Wikipedia article:
The population of Welwitschia mirabilis in the wild is reasonably satisfactory at present. The international trade in the plant is controlled under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Plants in Angola are better protected than those in Namibia, because of the relatively high concentration of land mines in Angola, which keep collectors away.
Lmao that took a wild turn
Wooo! Nice solution!
Sounds like what's going on with many cactus species in México, they grow in cartel territory so no one dares put a foot near them
I get the feeling that the people who say that wild populations are satisfactory are the same type of people who pick up snow and say global warming is a lie.
Protect plants, plant landmines.
Thanks once again Tony. Cacti were the first plants that I grew from seed way back when I was still in Júnior school in the early 1960's. Over the years I have grown many hundreds of thousands of plants from seed. At one time I was growing enough to support a very expensive past time flying and owning vintage aeroplanes which I used as a tool to reach remote areas to see plants and collect propagating material
As a youngster, this sounds incredibly cool.
Wow!
People dont understand how long take those cacti to grow in the wild, so sad to see natural populations destroyed, there are much better ways to propagate and grown them
They know how long they take to grow. They just don’t care. They want their stolen plant money, and they want it now.
They grow faster than you think. The issue is the reproductive window. Some cacti take decades just to flower. Of course taking the cacti is bad but the flowering and seed dispersal time requirement is considerable
Poaching Trillium and American Ginseng and others is a big deal in the Eastern US. They pay the local people a few cents a root or bulb or rhizome. The economy is so poor in some parts of the Appalachians and Blue Ridge mountains that poaching plants puts food on the table.
In coastal California we have a huge issue with Dudleya poachers. Species like D. farinosa have been in the news for years, as
Asian poachers have filled backpacks full of the plants before sending them to sell overseas. For all the people who have been apprehended, many more get away with it.
Ginsing has been poached to extinction in spots around the Allegheny mountains. People got no respect! It is common among the very poor to do whatever they need to provide for their families, I hate the plants suffer, I hate that people suffer too. Richest country in the world 😂? Depends on ones perspective.
Any format works for me, always informative & entertaining.
When I was a kid many a Christmas was funded by my dad hunting ginseng. It was common for my dad and the hunters I knew to sow the seeds where they found the plants so as to encourage new growth in the future.
I was horrified as an adult to run into people who not only didn't sow the seeds back to ground they came from, but also took every single plant in a patch no matter the size. That was also a thing not done by those I knew as a kid, including my dad. They, and thus eventually I, understood that taking everything meant there wouldn't be any left to harvest later.
I still get all kinds of furious when I hear about anybody poaching wild plants in my region and I tend to get loud about it.
Most of the ginseng hereabouts (the Cumberland Plateau at the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains) is gone thanks to the unscrupulous and the thoughtless/uneducated. Information lost between one generation and the next. It's pitiful how much knowledge has been lost about maintaining ecosystems and environments.
Even as a student of conservation biology I sure as hell can't blame anyone poaching to feed their family. The fact they *need* to do this to keep a roof over their head and their kids fed is a fucking international embarassment for us as a species.
Of course the fuck heads who do it just because it's lucrative and they like money but could do something less harmful can go and fuck themselves - but certainly a solid chunk of poaching is survival activity.
I hope Al gets a continuating block opening for you. Really warms the video up
Joey you are truly the Henry Rollins of botany.
Rude
It’s always good to see Al and I just love to hear you vent about humanity. Thanks for bringing this to our attention
As a proud gradjiate of Sul Ross State U., thanks for visiting!
I always think about cactus poachers when I walk by those coffee shops with all the little succulents and air plants everywhere. I wish more people knew how about cactus poaching. It would be nice to have a flyer/pamphlet to leave places informing people.
The intros 🤌
The more I spread the seed, the happier my yard becomes. I love that leaving it all crazy looking and dead feeds all my nature friends throughout the winter (as some/most of the human neighbors look on in distaste haha). I clocked at least 22 different butterflies so far, trying to plant every Texas native possible for this area, haven't gotten into cactai too much in my yard but I get excited when I see them out hiking around central Texas and into New Mexico. My neighbors keep spraying for mosquitoes though the last 2 years and I noticed all the sweet bees, multiple types and sizes, have been reduced to almost zero despite me planting so many natives. Pesticides should be illegal. Anyway, all the plants I can propigate, I try, though I'm still learning...
Thanks for listening to my rant lol! love your channel. thank you!
Love this format. This flows like a syndicated TV series. Great work.
I never thought about that, but this madman probably grew up on public broadcasting in Chicago. It had a pretty great community broadcast scene when he was a pup.
Even when Al is doing something as lame as covering a free newspaper/ad extravaganza, I find it compelling and must watch. Big ups, Al
Ahh yeah, bloody brilliant! Loved Al’s “complimentary” introduction. Cheers, from Southern Oregon 👍
Its always nice to hear from Al about whats goin on there in Cook County nice
Good to see you Al, always a pleasure to hear your voice. Glad to see yer new year is starting off on the right foot.
How is Louis DeJoy not in a g'hill'o'tine? "...You ever mailed anyone dog sheets in the mail?" LMAO
The first three minutes of this needs an award.
Gold. Pure Gold.
Keep up the great work fellas.
Yet another excellent episode. Thanks Tony.
I would watch a whole series of Al reading the local newspaper lol
Hello there Tony, hey, I just moved back to IL after being in Utah for 30 years or so. But I was needed. Ok, I love listening to you. Your knowledge and passion is pretty cool.
I've been hiking a lot and noticed a friggin gang fight going on in the woods. The good old giant trees are getting a major ass whoopen from the poison ivy vines and also the buckthorn is kicking both their butts. All the trees are dying, being murdered as we speak. I started cutting them down and herbicide on the stumps. I'm volunteering with the Forrest preserve and guess what they got me doing? Cutting down Buckthorn. Thats a good thing. I'm starting a Facebook page so I can get help with the cost ' and a place to get more volunteers to help out. Everyone wants to help when they step in the woods and see all the dead trees with a vine on them or a buckthorn living large next to the stump. Sorry for writing a book here instead of just a comment. Keep up the good work, you're a good dude you ass hole.
I'm one of those people who breeds Pelecyphora from seedling to flowering to seed production. Takes a looooong time but it's worth it.
specially if theyre as much as he was saying!
I love this channel and the things you show and your editing!!! Thank you!!!
As an educator your videos rock!!! Thank you!!!
Aww yisss. Saturday night, couple of beers and ramblings of Tony
Back at it again with the beautiful Cacti, killin it!
Very educational, I've never wanted to shit in a box and mail it more in my life than I do now 😒😆. I 100% believe you have the skills to woo woo sir ❤️😆😍
Never even heard of spider mites on a cactus. Imagine the conditions inside these poachers' greenhouses.
Mites suck...... literally
They're a pretty common pest on cacti in cultivation, annoying little things. They really love lophophora - very frustrating if you're trying to grow nice looking lophs. They don't kill the plant generally but they mark the surface of the plant, scarring it and making it look ugly.
@@edgarallenpoe8457 they love a indoor cannabis garden. That is for sure. No predators except the gardener. Doesn't kill the plant but might as well
Makes my blood boil.
CPBBD never ceases to amaze with how thoroughly ethical his explanations round out
This episode reminds me of something going on in Arizona. Japanese businessmen traveling to private properties in Arizona to poach Juniper, az Cypress, Ponderosa pine and cactus for Bonsai.
Very interesting. Do they not get permission from the land owners? What makes it poaching? I’m into bonsai an wild collecting is why I ask
@@nicholasgalluzzo6307 outside the private properties are national forests which are protected and illegal to remove any trees without prosecution. So getting permission from private property owners is a way of getting around the law. I guess its an ethics matter, whether you care about the eco system? Or are a selfishness enough to care about your desires to control 🤔 nature.
@@raymonddettlaff1386 Thank you for the explanation. I had no idea that was happening. I know its always been a long, time honored tradition for bonsai people and layman to argue about the ethics of tree collection.
@@nicholasgalluzzo6307 I am also a Bonsai enthusiast. I enjoy creating bonsai from saplings I collect in the city. And I also grow from seed.
Al has been a wonderful addition to this channel!
Good to hear from Al and appreciate the Cook’s Country update. Hope he gets those beefs to the guys God knows they’re hungry. Bless the troops
I'm worried some of those beefs may not make it 🤸🤸
You are awesome and I learned a lot. Thank you.
Speaking of growing cacti/succulents from seed, would you consider doing a primer for such?
San Pedro Mastery has some pretty rad tutorials on his YT page. 🤙
Yes, please!
Please do
Thank you
Enjoy the educational talk and entertaining presentation. Kudos.
Stay well and remain positive.
hey tony just wanna say really loving your content as i just came across ya on FB... even better you have a youtube channel and am now subscribed here... watching your videos i'm starting to realize that i am developing a love for botany!!! thank you for the intro into the this world :)
That's a really awesome thing that the people at the fish and game are doing to try and combat the problem of poaching! It's a damn shame!!!
Such beautiful plants!!! ☺️☺️☺️☺️
So glad to hear the batchroom has been rehabitated 😂
Got my CPBBD shirts today! I'm very happy with them!
Omg Al is hilarious here😂😂😂 did not expect that accent from that beard😂😂😂
"Probably some poaching is due to the fact that people are broke as f" Thanks for stating that, it is one more proof you are a sensible, clear-minded human being. Good luck for your health and education systems out there
PS Loved the local news, "stuffed French toast" + 2:55 "The amount of ethyl mercury in flu shot is less than the more dangerous methyl mercury found in a can of tuna". I've never seen anything like that
Growing Lophophora from seed is fun. Given the right conditions they can grow pretty fast, you just have to be extra precautious that they don't start to rot. Some people even graft them and get massive sizes in extraordinary quick times. Of course you should inform yourself about the local laws first
Yea don't go digging up 100 year old mesquite trees looking for it...
Over in most Asian countries there's entire greenhouses full of lophopphora w. Apparently they typically grow em as an ornamental cacti specifically. They don't even usually graft em most of the time.
I'm glad here in Valencia Spain we have the temps and sun necessary to cultivate them easily for seed. I bought a myriostigma from this guy that grows them almost straight in the ground like cabagges
Nice upload 👍
Stay blessed and happy
Al's got a great band!
People buy mature plants even when they know better, because of simple instant gratification, wrapped up in the whole collector culture. Obvious, I guess. I also have raised cacti (from cuttings and small rooted plants from a nursery) to hand pollination and seedlings, and I came to appreciate the whole thing with a broader grasp. It had much to do with one of my most favorite past reads being; A Cactus Odyssey, by James Mauseth, Roberto Kiesling, and Carlo Ostolaza.
And this broadened interest has much to do why I watch this show now.
dang i never read about the effects of humidity on the temperature differential, but it makes complete sense.
the physicist words you're looking for were the high *heat capacity* of water compared to Nitrogen/Oxygen gas and one of my favourites the *thermal mass* of the water content in the air
Just glad ta know da battroom situation is copasetic 'gin, apparntly tha timing belt on da Dahdge still needs sorted though since Al's drivin' around in his Mutter's car or somthin. Good ta know.
Top notch episode guys.
Omg I love your friend!!!!
I have shock:.That looks like a decent newspaper!and congrats on the basement bar bathroom project!
Cactus poachers the easiest/hardest game.
It pricks it doesn't move and it can possibly kill you with milky sap.
Hopefully they start replacing all the destroyed native wild plant and animal life.
Yes I seen video but sucks because people can't keep there hands off them.
Hopefully this video helps get them in trouble soo it starts to slow and stop riping them up.
Show us yer “woo woo” Toni! 😂
I started growing from seed 2 years ago, this year i'm gonna graft some of my specimens hoping to accelerate their growth and start getting my own seeds
I don't understand "collectors" that buy plants from poachers either, as you explained stressed mishandled plants are much more fragile than propagated cultivated seed grown plants :/ Hopefully more people will do as the Japanese do and mass produce these rare endangered plants
Mass propagation does not halt wild collection of plants; Venus flytraps are still dug today, even though they can be purchased inexpensively from tissue culture- from labs that produce them by the tens of thousands! Also note that Japanese have been implicated in poaching as well, even plants like orchids that can be lab produced in great numbers. Who wants to wait 3-5 years for the latest species of paph, when you can buy it now in a box with a fake CITES export certificate?
Poaching will always exist because of collectors that want varieties that are new or novel to cultivation. Two warts instead of three on the dorsal sepal? It's a new subspecies that someone just has to have!
@@ericyoung7049 You are right, but as long as it lessens the pressure it might be enough to help keep some of the plants in habitat :/ And yes, Orchids are a mayor problem, I just wish it was only the japanese poaching plants, at least then there would be a chance for those plants to become stock plants and not be dead in a week :(
@@ericyoung7049 Also, why are people poaching Venus Fly Traps? makes no sense to me with all the cool cultivars and varieties they're producing now a days.
GRATEFUL, those critisms were right, education and poverty have great fault to this
Amazing video with beautiful cacti, but very heart breaking. Especially when you mentioned that "... some these species will probably be extinct in the wild within our lifetime..." Damn you mouth breathing poachers!
My man! first time hearing about someone having sympathy for those just about forced into poaching to survive. Fuckin love this channel.
Glad to see Al got the Daadge running again.
A lawyer with a stethoscope lol
You speak truth, Tony/Joey.
I dont know why... but somehow these videos calm my worst anxieties.
The "Chicago Ties" was on point 🤣🤣🤣🤣
If you don't think west Texas is beautiful you haven't seen it after a good rain. The grassland prairies wildflowers growing up against the blooming cactus with lizards and tarantulas sunning is lovely.
Thank Gahd for West Texas. A lot of people from California don't want to go there either because they're scared of it or find it off-putting. And thank Gahd for that too.
All Hail West Texas is (imo) the best Mountain Goats album. Guess I should visit!
Looking at those mealy bug drives me nuts! A Q tip dipped in rubbing alcohol and applied to each bug separately would be a very satisfying way to spend an hour or so.
Read an article about this. Glad you covered it.
The avant guard way you deal with ads Tony is a breath of fresh air.
That magpie analogy was 🤌
I know you specialize in desert and more dry land plants but I really suggest if you ever have the time to come visit Hawaii, more specifically Maui, there are so many native plants and also way more introduced and invasive plants that I know you would really enjoy, but you definitely need to visit Haleakala national park to see the silverswords, they are such beautiful plants that only bloom like once a decade and can’t be found anywhere else in the world.
@tony I am a member of a local cactus society here in El Paso tx, and I have been the recipient of several of those stolen plants. I believe the Sol Ros recovery community has reached out to local cactus clubs for good homes.
You're a good man, Tony. Thank you, from my bloody wooden heart, on behalf of the kingdom of plants and the Domain or Eukaryote.
The Domain of Prokaryote, as I am sure you know, can look after itself, they don't die threy either double up or suspend animation, and only fungi like penicillium mold or phage virus bother them, and those in our gut eat us as soon as we stop eating and breathing.
From SE Australia the opposite end to where native sandlewood was culled to within a bees dick of the Thylacine's fate down south in Tasmania.Why oh why did we not learn from the First Nation Australians!! It is a 234 year source of carnage, national shame and personal regret.
PS. Had some success with Lophophora from seed, but it is a slow slow process, with now all that time from 1985 to have much to show.
You're my Boy. Not a Chicagoan but just down the road, assuming you can get through Gary without getting Killed.
Hey der!! Great work as usual. Give my regards to Bill an’ Bob Swerski an’ da udder Superfans at Ditka’s. Go Bears!!
One of the Dudlya poachers was recently caught and sentenced to 2 years in prison. He had escaped and went to South Africa, but he got busted for poaching down there and did a year before being extradited to the U.S.
I remember reading an urban legend during the very early days of the Internet about a couple who poached a cactus from Mexico. As they drove north the cactus swelled larger and larger. After they arrived home it exploded and baby tarantulas swarmed out and infested their house. I have no idea if that is even possible but it sounds like a great story for discouraging cactus poaching!
Hey 👋....you got me buying cactus seeds from the internet and growing exotic shit all over my kitchen. My husband is like "what the shit? There isn't room to set anything down cuz you got plants everywhere..."
Thanks Tony! Love this new hobby
As informative and absorbing as this video was I also have a sophomoric sense of humor and so my favorite part was still: "Stick your finger in der and see if it's moist" Nice!
In greenhouse conditions, sometimes certain pests proliferate more because of the fact there are not other checks on their population, particularly from predation by other animals, than because of any problems with the growing conditions. I mean, everything you are saying is correct, so I am not arguing against your point, just saying that having worked in some greenhouses, that does happen as well.
It pi***s me off. The thing is that 95%of poached plants die because the idiot who buys them has no clue how to take care of them. These plants have grown up in a natural habitat. When you move a mature plant from that habitat into greenhouses or homes, the plant can't adapt and almost always dies. When you buy a plant from a nursery, the plant is used to cultivation and is a much better risk. If you buy seed, the plant is accustomed to your growing conditions and has a much better chance of survival. In fact, once you get them to about a year old, your chance of success goes from 5% to 90% and, with the right care, a cactus can live to be 300 years old or more. I wouldn't bother with the poachers, they're just poor sods who are just trying to make a buck, just like poor f****er who picks your pocket at the fairgrounds. Arrest him if you catch him and fine or jail him, but the one you want is the guy who pays him five or ten bucks, then hauls the plants over to Europe or Asia and collects several hundred. I wouldn't just mail.....stuff to him I'd sneak into his house and mix it with his oatmeal. He's cheating two people. He's paying the poacher nothing bit birdseed, then he's selling the customer a plant that will probably die within a year.
I'm here for this voice and accent and now im learning thing's! Lol 😆
Enjoyed your stuff for a long time, from Brooklyn so the vocabulary makes me laugh. Staten Island?
I've watched quite a few videos of you now n that's the first time I've seen your face!😁, when you hear someone's accent n your mind makes a picture of what they look like, you look completely different to how my minds eyes perception was!🤔🤣🤣✌️
Hope Tony got to meet the legendary Dr. Martin Terry while he was there
This is insanely good content
rehabitated. Luv u Al
👍
I probably have one Echinocactus horizonthalonius (too small right now to know, maybe it's 1.5 years old, I bought it when it was very small at a supermarket), it is growing in the worst rocky dirt other plants would hate to grow on, wonderful prickly fat. I make its substrate with the local awful white dirt and crushed rocks I like (some quartz and red rocks I found). I just wanted to tell someone about my cactus haha.
I’m gonna have to learn how to grow cacti and succulents from seed, I have grown a lot of cuttings and propagations but seed start is the next stwp
Have visited San Luis Potosia building a car plant, sorry.
But what an amazing area, was a beautiful place and people.
It is a huge metals processing area and was known for making the stainless kitchens and counters for taco bell across the planet.
Another way adult plants from the wild get into the trade is when a habitat is being destroyed (for “development”) and someone manages to get in and scoop up the “rare” or “valuable” plants before they are bulldozed into oblivion.
This is also the alibi that many poachers in places like West Texas have been using while ripping plants like Ariocarpus from habitat en masse. But yes especially with things like the border wall that has been a lot of habitat destroyed and oftentimes if the plants that are there are not removed they are destroyed with it.
@@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt Seems like if it’s a public project then public institutions should be given a fair shot at rescuing what might be worth rescuing. I’m not sure how frequently that happens.
Seems like the best way to protect these endangered plants would be to set up propagation programs. If people could buy propagated plants at reasonable prices the market for poached plants would dry up to a large extent.
Indeed
So sad, they look like smuggled migrants crowded into holding cells, no amenities, and what is their future? Can they be repatriated? Are there specialized botanical gardens in the states where they could be matched to the ecology and thrive?
Loved this report from Al - nice media review. Is that Roma's Beef where you got those sandwiches you shared with Jack?