Proplifting

Jarrell’s specialty plant shop, Potted Elephant, had suffered a fate experienced by a small but growing number of nurseries, shops and botanical gardens in the wake of the booming specialty plant market: unscrupulous collectors and sellers pilfering cuttings (and sometimes, entire plants) without permission in order to resell online and net a profit.

At Potted Elephant, the thief cut tendrils of philodendron, variegated monstera and scindapsus from live plants in his greenhouse – some from Jarrell’s personal collection of rare plants. Jarrell, who had taken attendees on a tour of the greenhouse, happened to notice a cutting missing from a plant, just after the last person had walked out.

He confronted the thief and could not believe his eyes when she opened her bag: “There was just a pile of cuttings in her bag.” Jarrell called Portland police, then had to walk back inside his greenhouse and sit down, in shock.

Read more here.

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Bracken ferns

The bracken fern:  It tastes like asparagus and almonds you can pick it wild on hillsides, open pastures, burned-over areas, in woodlands and other shaded places.

The young immature fronds of bracken ferns are known as fiddleheads and were widely consumed by Native Americans in the U.S. for centuries as well as in other regions of the world.  They are still consumed by millions throughout the world today, are considered more of a delicacy in the U.S.now, but are very popular and commonly in Japan and Korea.

Bracken ferns are thought to have the widest distribution of any fern in the world, are most prolific herbaceous plant in North America, with the exception of Antarctica, are found on every continent and in every environment except for deserts.  They’re also one of the oldest ferns in the world with fossil records going back 55 million years.

Read more at source here.

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