This is a photograph of Fritillaria imperialis 'Rubra' from the Botany Photo of th Day blog at the University of British Columbia Botanical Gardens. Apparently the photo was taken some time ago because the curators now say that the gardens has only a single plant of this species. Or rather, had a single plant.Last week it was stolen from the Botanical Gardens. Read the website for an impassioned defense of public gardens and why stealing plants is an ethical violation of a public trust.
There are three things that really disgust me about these thefts: the privatization of a public shared good, the potential impact on research projects in the garden and the loss of public investment. You'll have to excuse my language as I'm not fluent in the words to best express some of these concepts, but I'll explain as best I can.
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