Is this legal or not.

[Subrosa]

Originally Posted by JScott

That's exactly the problem. People need to be mass producing these rare wild orchids. But you should never buy a plant you suspect was collected from the wild. That only encourages the poacher to keep poaching more plants, and eventually these plants will be extinct in the wild.

"Extinct in the wild" is a misuse of the word "extinct,". Extinction is an absolute, like pregnancy. You are or you aren't extinct or pregnant, irrespective of geography. The proper word is "extirpated".

[JScott]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

"Extinct in the wild" is a misuse of the word "extinct,". Extinction is an absolute, like pregnancy. You are or you aren't extinct or pregnant, irrespective of geography. The proper word is "extirpated".

Thank you for clearing that up. I said "extinct in the wild" because that is a common turn of phrase which people use, because it's easy to understand, where not everybody may know what "extirpated" means. But now a few more people do, so thank you for that.