Phragmipedium kovachii

"If customers decide to sell their legal Phragmipedium kovachii seedlings within North America, it would be prudent for them to supply
each purchaser with a photocopy of their own legal certificate, write the name of purchaser and number of seedlings purchased on that photocopy and and sign it. This way the new owners have proof that
their Phragmipedium kovachii was obtained legally, just in case some authorty should question it."


This would indeed be prudent, because the authorities are indeed preparing to act. Page 265 of the current (Sept-Oct 2007) edition of The Orchid Review contains the following warning:

"it is common knowledge that in addition to INRENA certified P. kovachii plants, many others have been removed illegally from the wild
and smuggled abroad. Some growers in possession of uncertified material are said to be growing second generation P. kovachii hybrids.
As a result the RHS, as International Cultivar Registration Authority for Orchid Hybrids, has decided that all future applications to
register hybrids involving P. kovachii must be accompanied by copies of the appropriate CITES and INRENA documentation".

Peter O'Byrne