Euphorbia cooperi transplant

This young candelabra euphorbia planted at the southern foot of the Magaliesberg is showing good growth and adjustment. It was collected in an Operation Wildflower expedition in Mpumalanga a couple of years before. Many plants are successfully transplanted according to the system used by the Association and described elsewhere in this website.

In cases where the natural distribution area of a transplant includes the destination garden, as is the case for this Euphorbia cooperi, no untoward ecological effects need be expected. Where plants are introduced into new areas, foreign to the natural habitat, specimens may die, which can then be used to adapt transplantation practices or acceptance of incompatibility.

Where transplants flourish, no harm is done as long as invasion doesn’t ensue. Provincial border regulation of plant mobility may help to prevent this, but would only be safe if adherence to natural distribution areas is enforced per species for all transplant destinations. This begs the question of interference with established commercial agronomy and horticulture.

The conditions under which the introduction of a plant into a new region and habitat will cause invasion are not sufficiently known scientifically or communicated socially (or both).