Some crazy-huge rafflesianas...

[paphioboy]

Originally Posted by sooxiwei

I do agree on cultivation and tissue cloning as a good way for conservation, for my personal concern is, how things are done, take EP as an example, based in Australia, you got to know how difficult it is to get things in and out of Australia, for the price, can't blame them much since there are way too many barrier to get things out or into that country...but aren't they selling seeds grown plant even though it is clone from seeds, for me, you or whoever are into nepenthes keeping, can you imagine how long does it take for a nep to flower? It is not something that flower easily, bare in mind that male and female is not from the same plant(TIMING ISSUES EVEN IF YOU GOT A LARGE QUANTITY LIKE OUR FEW PLAYERS WHO GOT PRISON FOR THEM)...if they were to purposely come over to get a small cut of plants, a cutting or two, how much would it cost them? With all the process of quarantine and so on, you think a cutting or two can survive that process? How long would it take for a nep to flower for them in order for them to pollinate their nep before going for TC...

If we were to religiously believe that the current way to cloning conservation is good enough, then prepare to say bye bye to other variation of a species/hybrid that are going to be burned down during illegal deforestation...AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, TO LIMIT OURSELVES TO WHAT IS THERE TODAY INSTEAD OF IMPROVING FOR A BETTER TOMORROW...

Bare root cuttings of many plants do survive quarantine well enough for entry into Australia and all other countries. I'm not saying that this specifically applies for nepenthes, as I do not know how the propagules for EP are brought into the country in the first place, so I do not want to speculate. But bear in mind that cuttings of agricultural crops such as grapevines are frequently brought through quarantine.

If your statement "How long would it take for a nep to flower for them in order for them to pollinate their nep before going for TC..." is saying that
only the seeds can be used for tissue culture, that is incorrect. Any part of a plant containing a meristem can be used for tissue culture. That includes shoot tips, and also root tips (but less commonly used). So pollination is not absolutely necessary for TC.

By "If we were to religiously believe that the current way to cloning conservation is good enough, then prepare to say bye bye to other variation...", did you think I meant to tissue culture and re-introduce into the wild? I never meant that. What I intended to say was tissue culture plants for public sale, so that wild populations will remain (hopefully) safe from overcollection and other threats.