WEBVTT - Episode 2: Plant Mania 0:00:08.245 --> 0:00:24.085 School of humans. 0:00:27.805 --> 0:00:31.405 Deep in the mountainous rainforests of southeastern Brazil, not far 0:00:31.445 --> 0:00:37.365 from the village of Domingos Marchings, grows a plant. Its 0:00:37.405 --> 0:00:41.125 stalks are long and narrow, a crown of dangling green. 0:00:42.005 --> 0:00:45.205 It grows out of the mist below the canopy, slowly 0:00:45.325 --> 0:00:49.245 creeping up the trunks of trees. As it matures. It 0:00:49.325 --> 0:00:52.885 hangs above the ground like a chandelier. The blades of 0:00:52.925 --> 0:00:56.845 each leaf splayed like the wings of an angel. The 0:00:56.925 --> 0:01:04.365 plant's name is philodendron. Spirit is sancty Latin for holy ghost. 0:01:04.885 --> 0:01:07.045 It is one of the rarest plants in the world. 0:01:07.525 --> 0:01:12.325 Only a few specimens grow in the wild. To plant collectors, 0:01:13.045 --> 0:01:18.765 the words spirit is sancty illicit goosebumps. The plant's name 0:01:18.845 --> 0:01:23.965 is spoken with hushed religious reverence. Many call it the 0:01:23.965 --> 0:01:25.965 holy Grail of philodendrons. 0:01:30.405 --> 0:01:32.445 It's only found in the wild in one small town 0:01:32.445 --> 0:01:34.045 in Brazil at this point, as far. 0:01:33.965 --> 0:01:37.885 As we know, that's doctor Arinovi. He's the president and 0:01:37.965 --> 0:01:40.045 CEO of the San Diego Botanic Garden. 0:01:40.165 --> 0:01:42.045 A big part about why it has such value to 0:01:42.045 --> 0:01:45.445 collectors is it has very beautiful long leaves. It looks 0:01:45.445 --> 0:01:47.885 fantastic and it's incredibly hard to propagate. 0:01:48.285 --> 0:01:51.645 A botched cutting, for example, could kill the entire plant, 0:01:52.725 --> 0:01:55.805 and that's why captive Spirit of Sancty specimens are best 0:01:55.845 --> 0:01:59.565 handled by professionals, people like doctor Novi and the folks 0:01:59.565 --> 0:02:00.965 at the garden in San Diego. 0:02:01.565 --> 0:02:04.405 We have about five thousand a little over five thousand 0:02:04.525 --> 0:02:08.725 individual plant taxa or species that are represented within our collections. 0:02:09.085 --> 0:02:12.405 It is an ungodly diversity of plants. 0:02:12.845 --> 0:02:16.205 This collection includes rare and endangered species like the Hawaiian 0:02:16.245 --> 0:02:22.965 Hibiscus aka Hibiscus rosa sinensis, the Bastard quivertree or Alliodendron pilancie, 0:02:23.485 --> 0:02:32.725 and of course the Holy Relic of southern Brazil. For years, 0:02:33.005 --> 0:02:36.045 the Spirit of Sancty was one of San Diego's centerpieces. 0:02:36.605 --> 0:02:39.845 It hangs high above the ground, delicately suspended from the 0:02:39.885 --> 0:02:43.805 greenhouse's ceiling, far out of reach of passers by. At 0:02:43.885 --> 0:02:53.245 least that's what they thought. One morning in May twenty twenty, 0:02:53.645 --> 0:02:57.285 a garden employee stepped into the greenhouse, peered up and 0:02:57.325 --> 0:02:58.765 witnessed a blasphemy. 0:03:00.085 --> 0:03:03.085 Our director of porta Culture at the time was in 0:03:02.725 --> 0:03:04.965 the garden and he felt like that basket looked a 0:03:04.965 --> 0:03:07.565 little less who eventually got out a ladder and climbed 0:03:07.645 --> 0:03:09.485 up and saw that this plant had been kind of 0:03:09.485 --> 0:03:10.005 hacked off. 0:03:23.165 --> 0:03:26.005 It became clear what had happened, and the dead of 0:03:26.085 --> 0:03:29.485 night somebody had broken into the garden, grabbed a pole 0:03:29.605 --> 0:03:32.805 saw or a long pair of lappers, and hacked off 0:03:32.845 --> 0:03:38.005 pieces of the treasured plant. The heist seemed meticulously planned. 0:03:38.325 --> 0:03:40.005 There were no signs of breaking or entering. 0:03:40.325 --> 0:03:42.645 There are other valuable plants in that space that they 0:03:42.645 --> 0:03:45.565 were not targeted, but it certainly seems like somebody was 0:03:45.605 --> 0:03:48.165 aware of our habits, you know, somebody was, for lack 0:03:48.205 --> 0:03:49.965 of a better term, kind of tasting the joint. 0:03:49.765 --> 0:03:50.285 For a while. 0:03:50.845 --> 0:03:53.485 The reason they targeted the spiritus money. 0:03:53.965 --> 0:03:56.965 That was probably the single highest value plant in the 0:03:57.005 --> 0:03:58.725 collection of the Botanic Garden in terms of what you 0:03:58.765 --> 0:04:02.565 could get for resale value. This plant could sell for 0:04:02.605 --> 0:04:04.925 between ten and fifteen thousand dollars on the open market. 0:04:05.525 --> 0:04:11.765 Fifteen thousand dollars. A Spirit of Sancty is more than 0:04:11.805 --> 0:04:16.085 a plant. It's a status symbol, an investment, a limited 0:04:16.245 --> 0:04:21.525 edition Rolex that knows photosynthesis, and that price tag has 0:04:21.565 --> 0:04:24.245 done much more than simply drained the pockets of rich 0:04:24.285 --> 0:04:28.885 plant lovers it's fueled a spree of crime and lies 0:04:29.045 --> 0:04:33.845 and deceit. I'm Summer rain Oaks. On this episode, a 0:04:33.925 --> 0:04:36.925 look inside a booming craze for house plans and how 0:04:36.965 --> 0:04:40.805 a cultural obsession and the human instinct to keep up 0:04:40.845 --> 0:04:44.645 with the joneses might be killing the things we love 0:04:44.805 --> 0:04:49.525 the most. From School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. This 0:04:49.725 --> 0:05:02.205 is Bad Seeds. It's twenty twelve and a small crowd 0:05:02.285 --> 0:05:05.125 is gathered for the International Alloyd Society Fall Show and 0:05:05.165 --> 0:05:09.165 Sale in Florida. It's an annual banquet and this year 0:05:09.565 --> 0:05:13.245 doctor Tom Crowet of the Missouri Botanical Garden and Tom Moore, 0:05:13.525 --> 0:05:16.565 founder of the Tropical Fern and Exotic Plant Society, are 0:05:16.605 --> 0:05:19.925 holding a plant they call the Piece de Resistance. 0:05:20.565 --> 0:05:27.245 Mortgage your house, Tell your children on this plant. It's 0:05:27.285 --> 0:05:28.485 been a little stock market. 0:05:29.365 --> 0:05:32.165 It's a spiritus sancty, a small one, but a spirit 0:05:32.245 --> 0:05:35.325 is nonetheless. And then the bidding begins. 0:05:35.605 --> 0:05:36.925 World works your money tonight. 0:05:37.045 --> 0:05:39.845 You have fifty dollars opening bed. Come. 0:05:42.645 --> 0:05:47.845 I got two hundred, three hundred three, I got four hundred, 0:05:48.365 --> 0:05:49.365 I got four hundred back. 0:05:49.565 --> 0:05:50.525 I got four hundred back. 0:05:50.525 --> 0:05:52.205 You're gonna let this go for four hundred. 0:05:51.925 --> 0:05:56.325 Dollars, of course not. The bids keep rising. Five hundred 0:05:56.605 --> 0:05:58.685 seven hundred, nine hundred nine. 0:05:58.565 --> 0:06:03.285 Fifty I got nine fifty nine seventy seven to got money. 0:06:03.645 --> 0:06:05.085 I got what. 0:06:07.605 --> 0:06:09.125 I'm gonna go. 0:06:09.245 --> 0:06:12.205 One thousand, once, one thousand, twice. 0:06:12.245 --> 0:06:12.325 So. 0:06:16.765 --> 0:06:21.405 One thousand dollars for a potted plant with just six leaves. 0:06:22.725 --> 0:06:25.965 This again, was twenty twelve, just over a decade later. 0:06:26.565 --> 0:06:30.365 That price seems quaint now. I remember when I first 0:06:30.405 --> 0:06:33.245 learned about the Spirit of Sancty. It was five years 0:06:33.245 --> 0:06:35.725 ago and I was doing a tour with a popular 0:06:35.805 --> 0:06:40.325 arroid grower, end A Falter. During that tour, I got 0:06:40.325 --> 0:06:42.565 to see the plant for the first time. 0:06:43.165 --> 0:06:46.565 This is the awesome Spirit of Sancty, one of the 0:06:46.565 --> 0:06:49.765 most rare philodendrons in the world. It's not in a 0:06:49.765 --> 0:06:52.725 lot of collections, and it's hard to get a hold 0:06:52.765 --> 0:06:53.085 of one. 0:06:53.205 --> 0:06:58.005 Actually, she tried to convey just how rare this plant was, 0:06:58.725 --> 0:07:01.485 but to be honest, I didn't really grasp it at 0:07:01.485 --> 0:07:01.845 the time. 0:07:02.245 --> 0:07:04.365 Well, they're first, they're expensive, and they're hard to get. 0:07:04.405 --> 0:07:07.125 There's only a few people that even wouldever have one 0:07:07.125 --> 0:07:07.605 to sell. 0:07:07.845 --> 0:07:10.765 You've got few would ever loan you at cutting either. 0:07:13.845 --> 0:07:17.485 That scarcity however, drives an aggressive market for the rare plants. 0:07:17.805 --> 0:07:21.045 It keeps prices high. In fact, if you bought and 0:07:21.085 --> 0:07:24.125 held onto that plant auctioned off in Florida, its value 0:07:24.125 --> 0:07:26.565 would have yielded an annual rate of return of about 0:07:26.565 --> 0:07:31.845 twenty eight percent, beating out gold. Prices have been turbocharged 0:07:31.885 --> 0:07:34.445 in the past few years, so much so that it's 0:07:34.485 --> 0:07:37.325 taken experts like doctor Arinovi by surprise. 0:07:38.205 --> 0:07:40.725 We knew that that plant prices were going up, and 0:07:40.765 --> 0:07:43.005 that during the pandemic, you know, people were getting more 0:07:43.045 --> 0:07:45.965 enthusiastic about house plants and even some rare plants, which 0:07:46.005 --> 0:07:48.725 mostly we looked at as a wonderful thing. But you know, 0:07:48.925 --> 0:07:51.005 we started looking at eBay and other things and being like, 0:07:51.045 --> 0:07:53.885 oh my god. We didn't realize that the same plant 0:07:53.885 --> 0:07:55.325 that you used to be able to buy for fifteen 0:07:55.365 --> 0:07:57.245 dollars at home depot now goes for. 0:07:57.125 --> 0:07:58.245 Three four hundred dollars. 0:07:59.245 --> 0:08:02.765 Driving this boom is classic supply and demand. There aren't 0:08:02.765 --> 0:08:04.805 many plants, but there are a ton of people who 0:08:04.845 --> 0:08:09.005 want them, so prices go up. In fact, one online 0:08:09.005 --> 0:08:11.725 plant store in Britain saw sales surge five hundred percent 0:08:11.805 --> 0:08:15.445 during lockdown. But who are these people driving up prices. 0:08:16.245 --> 0:08:20.165 If you read the headlines, it seems pretty obvious. 0:08:21.205 --> 0:08:25.165 California hipster plants at the center of smuggling crisis. 0:08:25.285 --> 0:08:27.965 What is it with millennials and cactuses? 0:08:28.085 --> 0:08:30.885 If only hipsters had stuck to their handlebar, mustaches and 0:08:30.965 --> 0:08:33.165 craft beer, this never would have happened. 0:08:34.645 --> 0:08:37.245 Yep, the same people who got blamed for killing the 0:08:37.325 --> 0:08:40.765 napkin industry, mayonnaise, the nine to five workday, and lately, 0:08:40.885 --> 0:08:43.685 well pretty much everything else. Millennials. 0:08:44.045 --> 0:08:46.965 We saw a whole generation of young people who previously 0:08:47.005 --> 0:08:49.485 weren't that engaged in house plans get excited about it, 0:08:49.485 --> 0:08:52.525 and again, that is ninety nine percent awesome. The only 0:08:52.565 --> 0:08:54.605 thing about it that's not awesome is that it did 0:08:54.725 --> 0:08:57.885 lead to a market that encouraged theft den poachings. 0:08:58.725 --> 0:09:01.485 The pandemic, of course, deserves a lot of blame too. 0:09:02.205 --> 0:09:05.685 Millions of us, trapped inside and craving something to do, 0:09:06.205 --> 0:09:10.765 began transforming our homes into sanctuaries, and it wasn't long 0:09:10.805 --> 0:09:13.925 before viral posts on TikTok began touting the plant mom 0:09:13.925 --> 0:09:17.165 and plant dad lifestyle. But the question I keep coming 0:09:17.205 --> 0:09:20.005 back to is is that the real reason this plant 0:09:20.005 --> 0:09:23.845 craze is happening? Or is there something about human nature, 0:09:24.405 --> 0:09:39.845 something dark, that just makes us crazy for plants. Here's 0:09:39.885 --> 0:09:43.725 the thing about our recent plant obsession. It's nothing new. 0:09:44.805 --> 0:09:48.965 Just ask Charles Mackay. In the eighteen forties, Mackay, a 0:09:48.965 --> 0:09:53.525 Scottish journalist, became fascinated with herd behavior, how certain interests 0:09:53.605 --> 0:09:57.765 or beliefs grew to overtake entire cultures. So in eighteen 0:09:57.805 --> 0:10:01.125 forty one, Mackay published the first volume of his book 0:10:01.485 --> 0:10:07.205 Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, witch Hunts, Alchemy, 0:10:07.445 --> 0:10:11.005 the Crusades. The book plum the Darkest Recesses of the 0:10:11.085 --> 0:10:14.765 Human Mind, and in it Mackay concluded that these trends 0:10:14.765 --> 0:10:18.245 and obsessions are just part of a cultural cycle. 0:10:18.765 --> 0:10:22.765 Millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion and 0:10:22.925 --> 0:10:25.685 drawn after it till their tension is caughked by some 0:10:25.765 --> 0:10:28.125 new folly more captivating. 0:10:27.525 --> 0:10:28.485 Than the first. 0:10:30.125 --> 0:10:34.365 One. Such folly, he wrote, was an irrational mania for plants, 0:10:34.405 --> 0:10:43.885 specifically tulips. It's the sixteen thirties, Holland. New trade routes 0:10:44.005 --> 0:10:47.125 just opened to the Ottoman Empire, leading the Dutch to 0:10:47.325 --> 0:10:52.245 quote unquote discover new foods, new spices, new ideas, and 0:10:52.325 --> 0:10:57.245 of course new plants. It's an exciting time and people 0:10:57.285 --> 0:11:00.885 are positively enchanted with everything coming out of the Far East, 0:11:01.885 --> 0:11:05.205 including a vibrant flower native to the lush valleys of 0:11:05.245 --> 0:11:12.125 my China and Afghanistan, the tulip. Within years, everybody in 0:11:12.165 --> 0:11:15.925 Holland wanted to get their hands on some tulips. According 0:11:15.925 --> 0:11:19.805 to Mackay, speculators began buying up bulbs, not with the 0:11:19.845 --> 0:11:22.925 intent of planting them, but in the hopes of just 0:11:23.085 --> 0:11:28.365 reselling them for a profit. And this rich scheme it worked. 0:11:28.965 --> 0:11:32.885 The cost of tulip skyrocketed, with some bulbs fetching more 0:11:32.925 --> 0:11:36.845 than a single year's wage. One bulb was valued to 0:11:36.885 --> 0:11:41.525 cost as much as twelve acres of corn. But then 0:11:42.325 --> 0:11:49.365 the craze stopped. People came to their senses the bubble burst, 0:11:49.525 --> 0:11:53.565 Speculators panicked and prices, according to some estimates, collapsed as 0:11:53.645 --> 0:11:57.845 much as ninety nine percent, and some people lost everything. 0:12:00.805 --> 0:12:03.445 Now it's important to note that Mackay had a habit 0:12:03.525 --> 0:12:06.365 of bending the truth a bit. His reports that this 0:12:06.525 --> 0:12:11.245 tulip mania plunged Holland into economic ruin are exaggerated, but 0:12:11.285 --> 0:12:15.645 the obsession was very real, as was another plant madness 0:12:15.685 --> 0:12:20.245 growing right outside Mackay's front door. This time it was ferns. 0:12:21.365 --> 0:12:27.005 In nineteenth century Britain, ferns were inescapable botanic gardens overflowed 0:12:27.045 --> 0:12:30.725 with fern specimens. Readers gobbled up literature on the subject 0:12:30.925 --> 0:12:34.845 and turned niche fern collecting books into best sellers. People 0:12:34.885 --> 0:12:39.165 subscribed to fern magazines and joined fern societies, with fern 0:12:39.205 --> 0:12:44.045 loving propagandists arguing that owning ferns was proof of intelligence 0:12:44.445 --> 0:12:50.325 that improved virility and mental health. But beyond all that, 0:12:50.605 --> 0:12:55.965 they were just another way to show off well to do. 0:12:56.005 --> 0:13:00.045 Collectors hired explorers to trot around Panama, Honduras and Tasmania 0:13:00.325 --> 0:13:04.685 to find rare ferns. Meanwhile, the middle class trekked towards 0:13:04.725 --> 0:13:10.005 coastal hillsides and dug up the plants themselves. It was 0:13:10.125 --> 0:13:13.685 like a treasure hunt, and it wasn't always fun in games. 0:13:14.525 --> 0:13:17.565 According to the September eighteen sixty seven Floral World and 0:13:17.605 --> 0:13:21.725 Garden Guide, one British woman, Miss Jane Myers, plunged off 0:13:21.765 --> 0:13:24.605 a cliff one hundred and seventy feet to her death 0:13:25.005 --> 0:13:29.565 while trying to pick a fern like tulips. The price 0:13:29.605 --> 0:13:33.525 of foreign ferns exploded, with some selling for more than 0:13:33.525 --> 0:13:40.245 one thousand dollars in today's money. Crook's cut wind pretty fast. 0:13:41.045 --> 0:13:44.485 Knowing they could earn an easy shilling, they started poaching ferns. 0:13:45.165 --> 0:13:48.205 It got so bad that botanists started to worry about 0:13:48.205 --> 0:13:51.885 the plant's survival. In his book The Flora of Cornwall, 0:13:52.165 --> 0:13:54.485 the botanist H. Davy wrote, it's. 0:13:54.365 --> 0:13:57.125 A shameful plundering has gone on that I now hesitate 0:13:57.205 --> 0:14:00.645 to speak or write about localities where the royal fern grows. 0:14:01.725 --> 0:14:05.445 As the naturalist Peter da Boyd tells us, it wasn't epidemic, 0:14:06.125 --> 0:14:10.165 with careless poachers catering to the demand of fern enthusiasts. 0:14:10.685 --> 0:14:15.005 The search for wild species led to the plundering of 0:14:15.245 --> 0:14:20.685 woodlands and hillsides, stream sides and whole woodlands would be 0:14:20.725 --> 0:14:26.925 effectively destroyed as regards their ferns by collecting literally tons 0:14:27.125 --> 0:14:32.445 of fern plants where unscrupulous collectors didn't think about what 0:14:32.485 --> 0:14:35.565 effect it might have on the environment. For most of 0:14:35.605 --> 0:14:41.565 the nineteenth century, there was no law against collecting ferns, but. 0:14:41.525 --> 0:14:45.845 That changed in February eighteen ninety six, a periodical called 0:14:45.845 --> 0:14:49.245 The Gardener's Chronicle documented the punishment for a pair of 0:14:49.285 --> 0:14:50.005 fern thieves. 0:14:50.765 --> 0:14:54.805 Fern stealers William Moby and Charles Williams of Bexley, Kent, 0:14:55.085 --> 0:14:57.485 were engaged with the horse and cart and the wholesale 0:14:57.525 --> 0:15:01.085 removal of ferns. Moby was sentenced to six weeks hard 0:15:01.125 --> 0:15:03.085 labor and Williams to one month. 0:15:04.365 --> 0:15:07.445 The wholesale plunder of ferns would turn the whole British 0:15:07.525 --> 0:15:11.245 countryside into one big crime scene, and that sparked the 0:15:11.325 --> 0:15:12.445 conservation movement. 0:15:13.325 --> 0:15:19.885 Such damage led to the first legal plant protection in Britain. 0:15:21.165 --> 0:15:25.445 Some of those laws, however, would arrive too late. The 0:15:25.485 --> 0:15:30.725 Killarney fern or Trichomani's speciosum, admired for its lacy, almost 0:15:30.805 --> 0:15:38.805 translucent leaves, nearly went extinct in Scotland. And that brings 0:15:38.885 --> 0:15:42.005 us back to the present day and our pandemic induced 0:15:42.045 --> 0:15:46.565 plant mania. It reminds me of something that doctor Arinovi 0:15:46.685 --> 0:15:47.165 told us. 0:15:47.365 --> 0:15:50.045 But you buy it illegal plants, you may be financing 0:15:50.045 --> 0:15:53.205 the destruction of an irreplaceable ecosystem that cannot come back. 0:15:54.045 --> 0:15:55.925 So the stakes are kind of high, and like I said, 0:15:56.485 --> 0:15:59.525 we unfortunately now have evidence that this big plant craze 0:15:59.565 --> 0:16:02.965 during the pandemic may have wiped out several species around 0:16:03.005 --> 0:16:04.565 the world just just from poaching. 0:16:04.645 --> 0:16:06.205 So it's it's not trivial. 0:16:06.845 --> 0:16:09.965 But who is really to blame? Is that boom and 0:16:10.045 --> 0:16:14.405 prices and the surgeon poaching really driven by millennials. To 0:16:14.485 --> 0:16:17.045 find the answer, we had to go to the coastal 0:16:17.045 --> 0:16:23.965 cliffs of northern California. High above crashing waves and not 0:16:24.085 --> 0:16:28.725 far from the meandering curves of Highway One, rose Dudleya Farinosa, 0:16:29.205 --> 0:16:36.125 a small cliff dwelling succulent nicknamed bluff lettuce. Around twenty eighteen, 0:16:36.485 --> 0:16:41.205 succulent poachers started plaguing these coasts, plucking thousands of Dudleya 0:16:41.245 --> 0:16:43.965 from the cliff side. Many of the people who were 0:16:44.005 --> 0:16:49.405 caught were Korean. One stole six hundred thousand dollars worth 0:16:49.445 --> 0:16:57.565 of succulents. Headline writers pounced. Soon news agencies were claiming 0:16:57.565 --> 0:17:01.685 that these thieves were motivated by quote, housewives and hipsters, 0:17:02.045 --> 0:17:04.485 people who are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for 0:17:04.525 --> 0:17:09.165 a single succulent. You might remember our friend doctor Jared 0:17:09.205 --> 0:17:10.685 margolis So. 0:17:10.725 --> 0:17:14.405 The obvious sort of narratives emerged that every housewife and 0:17:14.445 --> 0:17:17.605 hipster in South Korea wanted one of these Dudleia, and 0:17:17.605 --> 0:17:20.725 that there was this succulent mania happening in East Asia 0:17:20.765 --> 0:17:23.405 that was driving this trade, and that people just saw 0:17:23.405 --> 0:17:25.645 an opportunity to steal the plants and make a huge 0:17:25.645 --> 0:17:26.565 profit off of it. 0:17:27.285 --> 0:17:30.125 In other words, the madness of crowds was just working 0:17:30.205 --> 0:17:37.845 its magic again. But something about that narrative didn't sit 0:17:37.965 --> 0:17:42.445 right with doctor Margulis, Like, why would somebody steal Dudleya. 0:17:42.725 --> 0:17:45.925 These plants were legally available for purchase from a variety 0:17:45.965 --> 0:17:48.605 of outlets in California, and they sort of looked like 0:17:48.645 --> 0:17:51.005 a commonplace succulent, you know, they have a nice, pretty 0:17:51.085 --> 0:17:53.245 rosette shape, and they put out a lovely sort of 0:17:53.285 --> 0:17:57.285 inflorescence in flower. They're not a rare species, and so 0:17:57.725 --> 0:18:00.445 people were pretty confused why suddenly it looked like people 0:18:00.445 --> 0:18:03.085 were stealing them by the thousands from their habitat. 0:18:03.565 --> 0:18:06.765 Not to mention that bluff lettuce, it's not a beginner's plant. 0:18:07.485 --> 0:18:10.605 Dudley As are really hard to grow as houseplants, and 0:18:10.645 --> 0:18:13.925 they really require an enormous amount of specialized care to 0:18:14.005 --> 0:18:16.725 keep them alive outside of their native habitat. On the 0:18:16.725 --> 0:18:19.725 West coast of California. So these were not plants that 0:18:19.765 --> 0:18:23.485 were being bought and sold by our typical succulent consumer. 0:18:24.405 --> 0:18:26.885 This didn't sound like the madness of crowds at work. 0:18:27.445 --> 0:18:31.565 This sounded like something else. Doctor Margulis needed to know more. 0:18:32.045 --> 0:18:33.845 I decided I had to go spend some time in 0:18:33.885 --> 0:18:36.805 South Korea to try to really understand and do my 0:18:36.845 --> 0:18:39.645 best to analyze these narratives and what was really happening 0:18:39.685 --> 0:18:40.485 in the trade there. 0:18:45.925 --> 0:18:49.645 So Margoulis flew to Korea. He visited nurseries and garden 0:18:49.685 --> 0:18:52.285 centers and talked to shop owners about dudley A sales. 0:18:53.085 --> 0:18:56.245 He discovered they were not a widely popular succulent plant 0:18:56.365 --> 0:19:01.085 amongst mainstream consumers in Seoul. Margulis popped into three of 0:19:01.125 --> 0:19:06.405 the city's largest succulent markets. Only one was selling the 0:19:06.445 --> 0:19:10.965 California Succulent. The vendor complained about a lack of demand. 0:19:11.925 --> 0:19:14.485 This didn't fit the narrative played out back home. 0:19:15.205 --> 0:19:17.645 These plants are really were only being sought by highly 0:19:17.645 --> 0:19:20.565 specialized collectors with a typically with a lot of skill 0:19:20.645 --> 0:19:23.805 and capacity to care for them, owning and maintaining either 0:19:24.325 --> 0:19:27.965 professional greenhouses or renting space in someone else's greenhouse in 0:19:28.045 --> 0:19:30.805 order to keep them alive. This was not sort of 0:19:30.845 --> 0:19:33.725 being driven by mainstream consumer culture. 0:19:35.405 --> 0:19:39.045 One plant dealer told Markulla's point blank, this isn't about 0:19:39.125 --> 0:19:43.125 Chinese collectors, or Japanese collectors or Korean collectors. This is 0:19:43.205 --> 0:19:47.885 about individual collectors and what they want. Millennial plant moms 0:19:47.885 --> 0:19:51.445 and plant dads weren't driving the crime spree in California. 0:19:52.325 --> 0:19:57.325 It was a small group of collectors, hardcore hobbyists, demanding 0:19:57.365 --> 0:20:00.285 that the plant be ripped from the ground, and as 0:20:00.285 --> 0:20:04.165 it turns out, they'd do just about anything to have it. 0:20:18.645 --> 0:20:21.205 You can hear the pain in doctor Novi's voice when 0:20:21.205 --> 0:20:23.805 he thinks back to the spirit of sancty heist. 0:20:24.165 --> 0:20:26.645 It would almost have been better if, like somebody was 0:20:26.645 --> 0:20:30.405 trying to steal our computers and like ruin the plants incidentally, 0:20:30.485 --> 0:20:33.085 because you know, you should have understand petty theft. But 0:20:33.125 --> 0:20:36.645 this is like premeditated, Let's find the rarest plant around 0:20:36.685 --> 0:20:43.405 here and steal it, taking it away from public usage. 0:20:45.605 --> 0:20:48.685 After the initial shock of the robbery, the botanic Garden 0:20:48.725 --> 0:20:52.845 notified police, who at first didn't really understand the magnitude 0:20:52.885 --> 0:20:53.405 of the crime. 0:20:53.685 --> 0:20:56.005 Probably the first second we were talking to law enforcement 0:20:56.005 --> 0:20:58.005 they probably were like, you know, this is some person 0:20:58.045 --> 0:21:00.085 in a neighborhood, and like, you know, some neighbors stole 0:21:00.165 --> 0:21:01.765 their prizes. But like, you know, as soon as we 0:21:01.765 --> 0:21:04.605 said here's who we are, this plant could sell for 0:21:04.645 --> 0:21:07.125 between ten and fifteen thousand dollars on the open market. 0:21:07.445 --> 0:21:10.325 Like they're like, oh, and I think they treated it 0:21:10.365 --> 0:21:12.445 like any object you know of that level value, if 0:21:12.445 --> 0:21:13.925 you know, if somebody called up and said, you know, 0:21:14.005 --> 0:21:14.845 someone stole my car. 0:21:15.445 --> 0:21:19.165 But the Botanic Garden was already at a disadvantage when 0:21:19.205 --> 0:21:22.125 it comes to high level plant crimes. Most local law 0:21:22.205 --> 0:21:25.085 enforcement officers are extremely inexperienced. 0:21:25.485 --> 0:21:27.445 Back in the nineteen nineties, when the Garden did have 0:21:27.445 --> 0:21:29.685 the theft of psychic heads, the garden benefited from the 0:21:29.725 --> 0:21:31.805 fact that the Sheriff's office in San Diego had an 0:21:31.845 --> 0:21:33.285 Agricultural Crimes division. 0:21:33.645 --> 0:21:37.925 That's right, an entire unit dedicated to plant crimes, which 0:21:37.965 --> 0:21:40.165 is not super common, especially these days. 0:21:40.805 --> 0:21:43.765 So there are no longer, to our knowledge, detectives within 0:21:43.805 --> 0:21:46.925 the San Diego law enforcement community that are specifically trained 0:21:46.925 --> 0:21:51.285 on and or daily dealing with agricultural, plant and animal theft. 0:21:51.645 --> 0:21:53.845 Law enforcement doesn't get to practice it as much. 0:21:54.085 --> 0:21:56.165 It means a certain kind of expertise is not present 0:21:56.205 --> 0:21:57.045 when it does happen. 0:21:58.205 --> 0:22:00.765 So to say the least, the police did not turn 0:22:00.845 --> 0:22:04.805 up many promising leads. At one point, they suggested the 0:22:04.845 --> 0:22:11.005 possibility of an inside job. The idea had merit. One 0:22:11.085 --> 0:22:14.725 prominent plant influencer online bragged that whenever he volunteered at 0:22:14.765 --> 0:22:20.525 botanic gardens, he'd steal rare clippings. The practice called proplifting, 0:22:20.965 --> 0:22:26.165 a portmanteau of propagate and shoplifting, is increasingly common. A 0:22:26.165 --> 0:22:30.165 Reddit page dedicated to legal and I Stress legal proplifting 0:22:30.485 --> 0:22:34.645 has more than two hundred thousand members. But in San Diego, 0:22:35.005 --> 0:22:38.805 the theft of the Spirit of Sancty went beyond simple proplifting. 0:22:39.565 --> 0:22:42.605 This was the work of an obsessive who knew what 0:22:42.645 --> 0:22:46.205 they were doing, and it would only be solved with 0:22:46.325 --> 0:22:52.725 the help of other obsessives. And that is when the 0:22:52.765 --> 0:22:56.605 gardens started getting tips from other plant lovers. People began 0:22:56.685 --> 0:23:01.805 trawling forums and social media looking for somebody, anybody trying 0:23:01.805 --> 0:23:03.285 to sell the famed plant. 0:23:04.325 --> 0:23:08.925 We started to get from the online aroid community saying, hey, 0:23:09.005 --> 0:23:11.525 we're seeing some chatter, you know, in some of the 0:23:11.925 --> 0:23:14.125 you know, blogs and social media. So that there might 0:23:14.165 --> 0:23:16.965 be a plant for sale that sounds like it might 0:23:17.285 --> 0:23:19.885 potentially be yours. The timing is right, the size and 0:23:19.925 --> 0:23:20.445 this and that. 0:23:21.005 --> 0:23:23.805 Pictures of the plant in question began turning up in 0:23:23.845 --> 0:23:28.085 the San Diego botanist inbox. One of them caught Novi's eye. 0:23:28.405 --> 0:23:31.085 Plant people are like dog people, and you know, we 0:23:31.205 --> 0:23:33.125 look at the plants in the same way that dog 0:23:33.165 --> 0:23:35.525 people or other pet owners, you know, or pet parents, 0:23:35.685 --> 0:23:37.925 you know, look at their pets. And so, you know, 0:23:38.005 --> 0:23:40.485 we know how many leaves that were on that one, 0:23:40.565 --> 0:23:43.525 We know the color differences between young leaves and old leaves, 0:23:43.765 --> 0:23:46.365 and so we told law enforcement and others that the 0:23:46.445 --> 0:23:48.925 plant in question looked a heck of a lot like 0:23:49.005 --> 0:23:49.565 our plant. 0:23:50.205 --> 0:23:51.965 So the police did their investigation. 0:23:52.685 --> 0:23:56.165 Law enforcement actually went to see one of the individuals 0:23:56.165 --> 0:23:58.685 who some people in the community thought either may have 0:23:58.725 --> 0:24:01.325 stolen it or somehow acquired it, you know, maybe they 0:24:01.325 --> 0:24:04.245 thought it was legal and was reselling it. Law enforcement 0:24:04.285 --> 0:24:06.125 told us that the person had an all buy or 0:24:06.405 --> 0:24:07.365 just there wasn't enough evidence. 0:24:07.405 --> 0:24:08.525 They couldn't move any further. 0:24:12.765 --> 0:24:17.205 So the investigation stalled, and Novena's colleagues resigned themselves to 0:24:17.245 --> 0:24:20.365 the fact that the plant was probably lost forever. 0:24:21.205 --> 0:24:23.285 I would put money on the fact that this plant died. 0:24:23.565 --> 0:24:25.805 I mean, this thing was so hacked up, like you know, 0:24:26.005 --> 0:24:28.085 they're very hard to root. I think somebody sold this 0:24:28.125 --> 0:24:30.845 plant for fifteen thousand dollars and the person who bought 0:24:30.845 --> 0:24:33.045 it didn't really know what they're doing, and. 0:24:33.485 --> 0:24:34.165 I think it died. 0:24:35.205 --> 0:24:35.405 You know. 0:24:35.485 --> 0:24:37.725 That's like for us, you know, and when you've cared 0:24:37.765 --> 0:24:40.165 for that plant for ten or more years and it's 0:24:40.165 --> 0:24:44.125 it's pretty devastating, you know. But I think, like everything else, 0:24:44.245 --> 0:24:47.445 you know, you try to build resilience from tragedy. 0:24:48.205 --> 0:24:51.045 But that's tough. Because the theft at the San Diego 0:24:51.085 --> 0:24:58.965 Botanic Garden, it's not uncommon. The list of thefts from 0:24:59.005 --> 0:25:03.525 institutions to community gardens stretches from Jerusalem to Sydney to 0:25:03.605 --> 0:25:08.845 Penang Church, New Zealand. A single plant where three thousand 0:25:08.925 --> 0:25:13.445 New Zealand dollars was pilford in Coral Gables, Florida, robbers 0:25:13.525 --> 0:25:17.005 ran off with two thousand dollars worth of greenery in 0:25:17.045 --> 0:25:22.285 Brooklyn five thousand dollars and because of these thieves, the 0:25:22.325 --> 0:25:26.925 public has lost priceless bonzize, rare orchids, and the world's 0:25:26.965 --> 0:25:32.645 smallest water lily. The basic fact is, if you know 0:25:32.725 --> 0:25:36.285