I got permission from the writer of the e-mail, below, to repost this.

Her concern about the ethics of replanting a cultivated native plant back
into a natural area contrasts starkly with the complete lack of comparable
ethical concern on the part of corporations like Monsanto and DuPont/Pioneer
Hi-Bred as they genetically engineer plants to contain genes from completely
unrelated species and then release those plants into the environment.

Tom
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Subj:    [iowa-native-plants] Green Dragon
Date:   02-10-22 21:53:43 EDT
From:   [log in to unmask] (nancy)
Sender: [log in to unmask]
Reply-to:   [log in to unmask] (nancy)
To: [log in to unmask]

About the Green Dragon.  I have found it growing in a wooded area
(Hickory Hill Park) near Iowa City, in a hickory oak grove. very loose
soil, high canopy.  I rescued a plant from the bulldozer a few years
ago, and saved the fruits in the frig in a plastic bag.  I soaked the
seeds and squeezed them out of the pulp, planted the plump ones in seed
starting soil and almost all germinated.  I repotted them to peat pots,
and set them in the garden, protected with a chicken wire cover.  I did
the same for Jack in the pulpit and practically every seed germinated,
and all plants survived repotting, and grew very well in a protected
bed.  These plants are all three years old now, and if any one wants
any, let me know in the spring.  I don't have any place to replant them
to, so I would be glad to give them away.  Are they still considered
"wild" if they have been in my garden for a few years, half a mile from
their origins?  Would it be ethical if I replanted a few back in the
park?

Nancy A. Fink

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