Green flags for buying plants online

By Fraser Cook, Durrell Institute for Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent at Canterbury, in collaboration with IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia 

As plant collectors increasingly turn to e-commerce and social media platforms to acquire new plants, it is essential to consider sustainability in the plant trade. These platforms, while offering wider access, often operate with fewer regulatory constraints than traditional plant shops or garden centres, which cater to non-specialist markets and adhere to stricter trade regulations. I have supported TRAFFIC (which works to ensure that trade in wild species is legal and sustainable) and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in delivering compliance training to eBay, aiming to strengthen online trading policies for plant sales and prevent illegal transactions. 

To ensure your plant purchase supports sustainability, here are some green flags to look for when buying plants online. I have used the recommendations and methodology developed by Amy Hinsley in The Role of Online Platforms in the Illegal Orchid Trade from Southeast Asia. While more work has been done on CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) appendix orchids, many plants are yet to be regulated, and there are ways to support sustainability. 

If a species is newly traded, recently named, or yet to have a scientific name, it likely has not been cultivated to a sustainable stock and is still being wild collected. A case in point is Paphiopedilum canhii in Vietnam, which was collected to near extinction within ten years of its discovery. Another example is a Hoya I took for taxonomic research in March 2023, which I fear was overharvested quickly and at risk in the wild. 

Many species are traded across borders and may not have sufficient paperwork. Just because a seller provides the appropriate documentation does not mean their supply chain is sustainable. Collectors should inquire about the supply chain, especially for newly traded species. Even if paperwork is provided, ensure that the plant has been sustainably sourced and cultivated. 

Sellers and collectors often have a preference for provenance information on plant labels to indicate the area of origin, which is linked to wild-collected plant material. The location of origin may be prohibited or from a conservation area where wild harvesting is prohibited. 

Collectors also often claim that a plant is ‘cloned’, which can be misleading. In horticulture, cloning refers to the practice of propagating plants through cultivation methods. However, in the collector’s market, when a plant is labelled as cloned it often means it was wild collected as a ‘cutting’, and there is no guarantee it was sourced ethically. In my research, plant hunters often take whole plants from trees, and these can easily be marketed as ‘cloned’. Understanding this distinction can help buyers navigate the language used by collectors and differentiate it from horticultural practices that prioritise sustainable cultivation over wild harvesting 

Social media plays a significant role in creating a ‘must-have’ status among collectors, even for less charismatic species. This feedback loop can fuel unsustainable harvesting practices to meet a growing demand. Botanists are less likely to share locality information, to limit commercial exploitation and prioritise conservation. Being mindful of the ‘must-have’ status and seeking alternatives that prioritise conservation can help reduce the pressure on wild populations. 

Sellers may also change trade names to bypass laws, and sole traders who work with plant hunters often use incorrect nomenclature or vague names (eg, genus level only). Many ‘new’ plants are sold with an ‘aff.’ (affinity to species), no identification, or with just provenance. This practice increases the risk of unsustainable sourcing and exploitation of the market, which ultimately benefits neither the collectors nor the rural plant hunters, only the reseller. 

For a plant to be considered a sustainable purchase, especially orchids under CITES guidelines, it needs to have at least two generations removed from wild plants. Supporting local cultivation not only reduces overharvesting but also benefits local livelihoods. By buying plants with accurate identification and proper paperwork, you can help reduce the likelihood of contributing to unethical trade practices.