A few gray branches, soaked in water for a week, will bloom with colorful flowers... Just after the new year, when the Spring Festival is approaching, many people may buy some flowers or dry branches to add a festive atmosphere to their homes. Unexpectedly, the so-called dried branch Peach and dried branch plum sold on some network platforms are actually Xingan dried branch Rhododendron from Northeast China, a national second-class key protected plant. The lowest price on the Internet is only 80 cents. In order to curb more and more crazy poaching, the relevant state departments listed the wild Xing'an Rhododendron as the second-class national key protected plant from September 2021. Popular science writers and plant protection experts call on consumers to keep their eyes open and not to mistakenly buy the dried azalea sold in online stores. The lawyer said that those who illegally collect and sell can be investigated for criminal responsibility if the circumstances are serious. The network platform also needs to take the responsibility of management. investigation The "dried branch flowers" sold by the three merchants are all dried branch rhododendrons "All the dried rhododendrons sold online are cut from the mountains. Don't buy them. The illegal mining in recent years has greatly reduced the wild Xing'an Rhododendron resources. There will be no illegal mining without trading." Plant conservationists stressed. Zhai Mengmeng is a popular science blogger. He constantly disseminates relevant plant protection knowledge through the online we media platform. According to his tips, the reporter of Beijing Youth Daily searched the keyword "dry branch Rhododendron" on multiple e-commerce platforms and did not directly find the relevant results. However, when searching for words such as "dried plum blossom" and "dried flower", we can see the phenomenon of selling real rhododendrons with fake flowers. Subsequently, the reporter selected a store from each of the three platforms to inquire about the situation, and the target price was about 1 yuan per branch. When they learned that they would purchase goods in batches, the merchants said they could offer a discount, of which the minimum was reduced to 80 cents a branch. For the length of time the flowers bloom, the store said it would take 10 to 15 days. When asked whether they could provide physical drawings of flowers, none of the three stores was willing to provide them directly. When the reporter asked again, two businesses provided "real pictures", and the other business directly said "no pictures". When asked about the source of dried branch flowers, all three stores said they were cultivated by themselves, but none of them was willing to provide pictures of the base. Dramatically, the reporter of Beiqing daily directly inquired whether the business sold azaleas, saying that he wanted to wholesale a large number of dried azaleas and put them in the store, but he was worried that a large number of people would cause trouble, but the attitudes of the three stores were quite different. The first merchant immediately said, "don't place an order, you don't need it.". In the face of questioning, the merchant directly replied "don't contact" and hacked the reporter. The second store replied "red plum" and "dry branch plum" after understanding the concerns raised by the buyer. When the reporter asked whether the "snow willow fresh branch" wanted to be photographed was a Rhododendron, the merchant admitted that it was a Rhododendron, but claimed that "we cultivated it ourselves" and assured the reporter that it would not break the law. In the comments below, most of the customers who have purchased are very satisfied with the goods and do not realize that they are buying dried cuckoos. The most common words in the comment area are "high quality and low price", "beautiful" and "really blooming". Another merchant made it clear to reporters that what they sold was dried red plum, but several customers in the commodity review area responded that "what they received was different from the picture, and what they sent was dried Rhododendron, not red plum". When the reporter asked whether it could be placed in the store, the store guaranteed "safety. It will not be reported and will not break the law". After knowing the walker's identification, the three merchants sold all dried azaleas. Poaching Illegal collection and sale of wild Xing'an Rhododendron is suspected to be illegal When the Spring Festival approaches every winter, a kind of dry branch flower that is known to be able to witness miracles will appear secretly on major online sales platforms. Merchants have given it many names, such as dry azalea, dry flower, dry flower, dry plum blossom, dry peach... But they dare not use its real name - Xing'an Azalea. Even on the product details page, you can't see it as it is. You can't see it until you turn to the buyer comments area. Zhai Mengmeng, a popular science blogger, had introduced the relevant knowledge of dry branch Rhododendron before being interviewed by the reporter of Beiqing daily. Zhai Mengmeng said that the purpose of businesses is very obvious, because they are very clear that it is illegal to illegally collect and sell wild Xing'an Rhododendron. After more than ten years of indiscriminate logging and predatory destruction, the wild Xing'an Rhododendron, which was originally rich in resources, finally exceeded the limit that species can bear, and the resources decreased sharply. On September 7, 2021, in the new edition of the list of wild plants under national key protection, the wild Xing'an Rhododendron was listed as a second-class national key protected plant. Zhai Mengmeng said that Xing'an Rhododendron is mainly distributed in high latitude cold areas such as Heilongjiang, Jilin and Inner Mongolia, and its annual growth period is only more than three months. It blooms in May and June and bears fruit in July. During this period, new branches germinate and grow. By September, flower bud differentiation ended and began to enter dormancy. "Xing'an Rhododendron has to wait 4 to 5 years from seed germination to plant flowering under good manual management." Zhai Mengmeng told Beiqing daily that since 2017, the media has paid attention to the theft of Xing'an Rhododendron, and the network platform has been adjusted to block relevant keywords, but some sellers are still quietly selling under the banner of other trunk branches. "If it is really artificially bred plants, there is no need to hide when selling them." A few days ago, Zhai Mengmeng saw someone selling two kinds of dry branches in a flower market. One is dry branch snow willow, and the other is recognized as dry branch Rhododendron at a glance. "The sellers of the booth do not necessarily know the dry branch cuckoo. They say it is a name such as dry branch plum blossom. After I reported it, the market supervision department intervened in the investigation, and the goods were taken off the shelf." Zhai Mengmeng said that at present, it has not been found that azaleas in other parts of China are made into dry branches for sale. The cost of artificial breeding is high and it is impossible to sell them at an extremely low price. statute The wild Xing'an Rhododendron has been listed as a secondary protected plant Jin Jiannan of Beijing huazhitao law firm believes that according to Article 344 of the criminal law and the administrative regulations of the people's Republic of China on wildlife protection, The provisions of the former are as follows: "Whoever, in violation of state regulations, illegally fells or destroys precious trees or other plants under special state protection, or illegally purchases, transports, processes or sells precious trees or other plants under special state protection and their products, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance and shall also be fined; if the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and shall also be fined Fine. " The "other plants under national key protection" in the Provisions refers to the species listed in the list of wild plants under national key protection. Moreover, the e-commerce law makes it clear that e-commerce operators shall not sell or provide goods or services prohibited by laws and administrative regulations. According to the above provisions, the wild Xing'an Rhododendron is listed as a secondary protected plant by the income of the national list of key protected wild plants. It is illegal for businesses to illegally collect and sell wild Xing'an Rhododendron. If the circumstances are serious, they shall bear criminal responsibility; The operator of the e-commerce platform is responsible for reviewing whether the operator in the platform has the subject qualification and whether the goods sold are legal. For some countries explicitly prohibit the sale of goods, if the platform does not block and disconnect the link, it will bear corresponding civil and administrative liabilities. Finally, lawyer Jin reminded not to buy wild dry branch rhododendrons. If there is no business, there will be no harm. Memory Excessive collection of Rhododendron in Xing'an leads to rapid population decline Gu Lei, associate professor and doctor of Botany of Capital Normal University, introduced in an interview that Xing'an Rhododendron is mainly distributed in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia and other parts of China, and also abroad in Japan, North Korea, Russia and Mongolia. Xing'an Rhododendron is a semi evergreen shrub, that is, some leaves will fall in winter, but they may not fall out. Some leaves will remain all the time and flower buds bloom in early spring. Because the flower buds were conceived before the leaves fell the previous autumn, there will be a phenomenon that the dry branches can bloom when they are picked back and soaked in water. Gu Lei introduced that in recent years, some people hope to make a fortune by relying on Xing'an Rhododendron. Because the flowers are bright and popular, the sales volume on the market is huge, but there is a lack of artificial cultivation, which poses a serious threat to the wild population of this plant. "When we judge whether a species is endangered or needs protection, we not only look at its existing population size, but also its population change trend." Gu Lei said that the rapid decline of the population of Xing'an Rhododendron is obviously caused by excessive collection. "In order to curb this phenomenon, it is suggested to include it in the list of national key protected wild plants. After the new list comes out, we should strengthen the management of collection and trading." Gu Lei believes that even if there is artificial breeding, the scale is very small and can not reach the level of large-scale supply market. If the wild Xing'an Rhododendron can be sold, who will spend money and energy on artificial cultivation? The breeding of woody flowers will take a long time, and there will be no return in the short term, so the cost will be very high. On the network platform or the market, you can easily buy a large bundle for 10 or 20 yuan, which must come from the field without cost. E-commerce platforms generally conduct keyword shielding. In fact, it is difficult to eliminate those businesses who only stare at money. They will sell another keyword. "It also calls on relevant departments to strengthen the crackdown, so that bad businesses dare not pick or sell." (reporter Dong Zhenjie intern Liu Jianyuan) (outlook new era)