biodiverseed:

That depends 100% on what you are digging up!

I use seeds and cuttings from “the wild” all the time: using local species is a much more sustainable way to garden. I’ve dug up and transplanted common seedling trees from the local forested area (those that were doomed to be shaded out), or taken forest deadfall to inoculate my soil with beneficial fungi and microorganisms. I also coppice wood from the local area.

It’s one thing to dig up a common tree or shrub in a non-threatened habitat, it’s quite another to be harvesting things like rare orchids and carnivorous plants in threatened habitats.

Basically, try and use good judgement. There is no one right answer.

Read more: “The Forager’s Dilemma”

#asks #bioregionalism

Have to agree it can be a very very grey subject overall and changes depending on what plant it is. (also gotta add cacti to the orchid/carnivorous plants at threat list, all three groups grow so slow and specialized that it’s so darn easy to poach them into extinction) Though Rarity / Ecological Status (locally and/or internationally) are very important factors as to what plants must absolutely not be touched whatsoever. For example of international; vs local status,  Asimina triloba and Magnolia acuminata could be considered common enough internationally in their natural ranges, but in Ontario/Canada the specific genotype of these plants is considered threatened to full on endangered.

In my very local area I’m the only one who’s even touched the native flora of the woodlands here and primarily either to start stock nursery plants (in such cases I’ve kept my collecting extremely stingy/minimal and only in areas where they are very very very common) or to just move them due to the threat of their habitat being destroyed. In other areas of Ontario though the very same native plants are being heavily poached in perfectly unthreatened habitat, the very reason as to why natives like Arisaema and Trillum are very much on the teetering between doing just fine to being classified as threatened due to poachers. There may even come a time where such species are very much considered endangered species if it were to keep up like this. If you can access nursery propagated/raised stock of plants of your local genotype, seek those first above most of anything else.

In the case of seeds/cuttings the same rules should be applied as collecting an entire plant, and if/when collecting is morally sound one still needs to be equally cautious; for seeds one must take few and not all from one single individual and only if it’s the species is producing heavily in it’s habitat; not only for the sake of the plant’s propagation in the wild, but also for the sake of the wildlife that depend on the fruits/seeds for food. Cuttings one needs to only do so on the most vigorous/healthy specimens to be VERY biosanitary and keep any tools/hands sterilized, any wounds on wild plants can be an invitation for fungi/pests (native or otherwise) which can become detrimental to the plants.