Re: Fwd: Cycads stolen from Quail Botanical Gardens

**G*@aol.com**

I lost a large cycad two or three years ago from right alongside my driveway. 
Wasn't rare--it was cycas revoluta-- but I liked it and miss it. I had 
received the orginal pup from the leprosarium in Lousiana many years before. 
The police told me that several were stolen ffrom Riverside that night, 
mostly from our neighborhood and that their experience told them we'd never 
see them again. They said they're trucked to Arizona and are in the ground 
probably before the day was over. All of the cycads are valuable, and even 
the usual ones we see are priced at around $1000 a foot.

I got back about $500 a foot from the insurance company on mine.

There's little you can do to protect them. They're shallow rooted, the 
thieves back up to one, dig out a little around the base, put a chain around 
it an winch it out in a matter of under five minutes. And all this happened 
when we were sleeping not 50 feet away from where the cycad was growing.

Gerald Burke
Flower Power Columnist
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