Shopper's Remorse
By Andrea Peck
Mail order is all the rage right now. It's so simple; you order what you want and it arrives on your doorstep contained in an oversized box and excess packaging. If you're really lucky you'll get bubble wrap. But, have you thought about ordering plants this way?
Apparently there is a whole plant market out there in cyberspace. You can virtually order any plant you like. We can all picture the scene: you are sitting alone in the dark of night, the glowing light of the computer screen is the only illumination in the room. You find the plant of your dreams. It's on Ebay. Maybe Amazon. The tiny picture gives away very little. Despite this you are convinced that your garden must possess this novel plant. Still, you pause. You notice that the vendor is located across the globe. Will your exotic grow in your microclimate? The price is enticingly low. (must be Ebay). But, here it is, after midnight—there are no rules. Impulse shopping seems like the very thing you need to do if only to feel like you have done something so that you can get back to bed and get some rest. You press the purchase button.
Sounds innocuous right?
Most of the time it is. In fact, let's face it, sending plants and seeds by mail is nothing new. There are large companies that make a fortune by tempting you with glossy, surely Photoshopped images that make you think you can smell the leaves upon the page. This is standard operating procedure.
There are times, however, that ordering a plant online can potentially cause havoc. This recent article describes the increasingly problematic occurrence of selling plants over the internet. Apparently, a number of vendors are selling invasive plants despite the fact that they are banned. Invasive plants not only pose a significant threat to the environment, but are often illegal to sell or purchase.
Banning the sale of invasive plants makes sense when you consider the threat that they impose. One notorious aquatic plant, giant salvinia, or kariba-weed, is capable of doubling in size every 8 to 10 days. The plant is so compact and thick that it basically smothers out sunlight and oxygen, killing the animals and plant life that live beneath it. Despite this, it has been sold recently through internet vendors. Generally, plants such as these are sold as aquarium or container species. Their ability to proliferate and grow easily is certainly a selling point. Whether online shopkeepers understand the ramifications of what they are selling—and the illegal aspect of it—remains to be seen.
When you consider the vastness of the internet, it's not difficult to see how containment of sales could present a problem. But, it is the inability to thoroughly regulate online sales that makes the job truly invasive. Considering the resources available to us, however, it does seem that these large online companies would find a simple way to monitor what is sold.
Until then, the impetus must depend on the consumer. Ultimately, it is the buyer who stands to lose his money—and much more. For more information I've included a link to the in Department of Agriculture's invasive species information site: https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/index.shtml