Rise of the plant smugglers: Craze for rare succulents fuels black market – with collectable cacti selling for hundreds

During the pandemic, while people were trapped in their homes, many developed new interests, from baking sourdough to collecting plants.

However, while enthusiasm for all things botanical may seem benign, some collectors’ enthusiasm for the rarest succulents mean that some are selling online for hundreds – or even thousands – of dollars, such is the demand.

And this demand has had some serious consequences, according to the Times, which reported that in a bid to meet demand, criminals have broken international law, with suspected illegal harvesting and smuggling of plants being blamed for some species going extinct.

There are around 107 species of conophytum genus, a family of small succulents. Over the last five years, it’s reported that some eight species have gone extinct, with a further 47 now critically endangered.

The issue has become so serious, that there are people dedicated to fighting plant poachers, like David Whitehead, who concentrates his efforts in South Africa.

He told the Times that people seek out unusual plants for their ornamental value, noting that ‘cacti, orchids, cycads and various carnivorous plants have been pushed much further towards extinction because of poaching’.

David described the situation in South Africa as a ‘crisis’. 

Within the plant collecting community, which has a vibrant presence on social media, people will show off their purchases, with the rarest and most unusual acquisitions earning the buyer bragging rights – and increasing demand and prices – and driving the illegal smuggling of exotic species.  

Certain types of monstera plants – notably those with white patches on the leaves – sell for thousands of dollars

In an effort to tackle the illegal smuggling, the UK government has funded scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, who have no easy task, with international criminal networks running the trade.

When it comes to how much people will pay for some plants, the amounts can be eye-watering.

Artist and ethically-sourced plant influencer Tyler Thrasher, from Oklahoma, told the Ties that a special variety of monstera (more colloquially known as Swiss cheese plants) can sell for thousands, with those with leaves that have white patches the most desirable.

In South Africa, it is illegal to harvest plants of the conophytum species from the wild, but they are regularly poached. 

A staggering 22,000 of the plants were intercepted at Cape Town’s international airport, bound for China, in boxes labelled as children’ toys.

According to David Whitehead, conophytum are targeted so much because they ‘have character’ and because they are small, people can have a larger collection of them even if they don’t have much space.

The plants were sent to Kew, where are they carefully stored. According to scientists, they cannot simply be replanted in their native South Africa.

This is due to a variety of reasons: they could be carrying pathogens, which could introduce disease. Or, because their exact provenance is not known, they could be replanted in the wrong place, which, according to David Whitehead, ‘would be damaging in itself’.  

Some varieties of a particularly popular type of succulent, the Conophytum species (a Conophytum bilobum is pictured) are so widely poached they are facing extinction

In addition, as they grow so slowly, once torn from the ground, it will take years for more to grow back, and restore the ecosystem.

Because of demand for the plant, which used to be locally common, it is now ‘pretty much extinct’ according Paul Rees, manager of Kew’s tropical nursery.

Some 3,000 succulents are intercepted weekly by enforcement agencies in South Africa

According to Paul Rees, so many are confiscated that it is ‘difficult to know what to do with them’, and finding the manpower to pot and save them is a problem, leading to lost plants.

He points out that trends in plants come and go, giving the 19th century obsession with  orchids as an example, leading to poaching. While some still happens, it has slowed down, with people now focusing on succulents.

An alternative to poaching endangered plants is the artificial cultivation of them – something David Whitehead says is to be encouraged if it mean there is less demand for poaching.

One of the ways scientists at Kew are trying to fight the illegal trade is using AI to scan the internet for talk about potential sales of endangered succulents. Called FloraGuard, and created by the University of Southampton and UK Border Force, it does have some limitations.

For example, it cannot access private groups on Facebook, only public-facing forums. However, it is useful in tracking trends in the trade, which species are most popular, how much money people are willing to pay, and where the plants come from.

Scientists at Kew Gardens (an orchid display put on earlier this year at the venue is pictured) are trying to fight the illegal plant trade

Another way Kew is trying to tackle the illegal trade is via a partnership with eBay: the organisations will work together to make it harder for vendors to sell illegally harvested plants. 

David Whitehead also suggests that buyers become better acquainted with signs that plants have been harvested from the wild.

For example, an artificially propagated plant would be expected to be pristine, whereas a wild plant is more likely to show signs of wear and tear.

Ultimately, according to Paul Rees, the solution to the succulent crisis could simply be that they fall out of fashion, and people stop coveting them so much.

He said: ‘I remember when I was growing up, rock gardens were the fashion and everyone had one. Then they were the last thing that anyone wanted.’

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