'Priceless' African water lily stolen from London's Kew Gardens

[Linus_Cello]

London (CNN) -- In a crime that will shock the green-fingered, a thief has made off with the tiny water lily Nymphaea thermarum -- one of the rarest plants in the world -- from a botanical gardens in London.
The plant, of which only a handful of specimens still exist in the wild, was stolen from a lily pond at the famed Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, police said.
The thief is thought to have dug or pulled it from the damp, temperature-controlled mud it needs to survive.
Kew Gardens is one of only two places in the world to cultivate this plant, and there were only 30 plants on display, London's Metropolitan Police said. They cite its value as "priceless" because of its rarity.
The stolen plant may have been easier to sneak out of the botanic garden, which has its own security, because of its small size.
The plant's bright green lily pads can measure as little as 1 centimeter (less than half an inch) across, and its white flower with yellow stamen is barely bigger than a fingernail.

more at:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/14/world/europe/uk-rare-plant-theft/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

[Daniel Herrera]

WHAT!!! I always wanted to see this waterlilies, they are beautiful and compact. I hope the thief is caught, but I also with that Kew starts some sort of propagation of this plant for the public, that way this won't happen again.

 

[TyroneGenade]

They cite its value as "priceless" because of its rarity.

Oh, I'm sure a price can be worked out... assuming the thief isn't a collector himself and is now admiring his prize in his aquarium.

 

[abax]

I don't understand what compels people to do such stupid things. There's
probably a 90% chance that the plant will die. So sad.

 

[gotsomerice]

Totally an inside job!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[goldenrose]

One would think there would be a security camera on something like this.
Recently had a meeting at The Chicago Botanic Gardens regarding their 5 week run Orchid Show starting Fe.15th, this came up and I asked, nope, no cameras and was told we'd be surprised what people do in broad daylight with witnesses. What a shame!

 

[Linus_Cello]

BBC story on plant thefts mentioning this:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29754101

(and some english orchids that were stolen:

• Once not uncommon in parts of northern Britain, the exotic Lady's Slipper orchid was wiped out by thieves and declared extinct in 1917. A single wild, native plant was then discovered in 1930, and this remains the only native site

• The Summer Lady's Tresses orchid was lost from Britain in 1956, largely due to thefts from its last remaining sites in the New Forest. It is still classed as extinct)

 

[cnycharles]

At one of the rare plant off-site propagation gardens where I went to school, a worker was tending a garden that had some young plants. The worker went to lunch and some of the rarest plants were gone when they came back (so someone was hanging out in the woods watching)
In other parts of the plantations rare plants are routinely dug up often at night. Sad thing is it's likely someone with money who doesn't need the something, just has that 'has to have it' feeling of entitlement
Think it was sometime last year? I heard about a woman pulling up quickly to a garden center in her beemer and jumped out to grab a big vanda or whatever, jumped back into the car and sped off...
(And it was probably just a mericloned hybrid )

 

[lepetitmartien]

Kew was so proud to have been able to make the waterlilies seed get off… I think it's shown in one of the last Attenborough series.

At the threatened Serres d'Auteuil in Paris, regularly some st00pid bumers come and stal, cut, destroy plants, last time was in early july in the palmarium where they among other thing mutilated the huge Ravenala madagascariensis… (got to post the pics I've made other the year in the orchid collections)