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Article: Ancient plant attracts smugglers, big money.(Originated from Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- April 16, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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NGODWANA, South Africa _ Mervyn Lotter scrambled along a trail in the Berlin State Forest, scanning the wooded slopes for cycads, an endangered plant species as old as dinosaurs.
Two years ago, Lotter pushed through these same thorny woods near Starvation Creek and embedded microchips in 1,400 cycads to identify each plant. Now most of the palm-like cycads he had marked were gone _ dug up by thieves and sold to collectors.
``All that is left are seedlings and a few old, dying plants,'' fumed Lotter, a researcher for the Mpumalanga Province Parks Board. A few larger plants, hundreds of years old, were left broken and dead along the trail. Lotter's ...