This is no garden-variety heist: Thieves steal 40 rare trees - valuable cycads - from a Miami botanical garden.

By LENNIE BENNETT
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 5, 2002

Brutally uprooted from their home under cover of night, bundled off and hidden, they await an uncertain destiny. A reward has been set.

[Photos courtesy of Fairchild Tropical Garden]

Zamia skinneri Age: 6 years  Height: 3 feet Last seen: In the vicinity of Fairchild rain forest

Stangeria eriopus Age: 30 years  Height: 18 inches Last seen: In the vicinity of Fairchild rain forest

Encephalartos whitelockii Age: 9 years  Height: About 20 feet Last seen: In the vicinity of Fairchild rain forest

Zamia pseudoparasitica Age: 40 years  Height: 7 feet Last seen: In the conservatory

"I was heartbroken when I discovered what had happened," said Craig Allen, the garden's conservatory manager. "I've been raising some of these cycads for 18 years. I feel like my children have been abducted." The heist occurred in August, but garden officials and the Coral Gables Police Department kept the news under wraps until recently, hoping to recover the plants. The garden has offered a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved.

Cycads (SIGH-cads), which resemble palm trees, are older than dinosaurs, dating back 200-million years. Today, only about 200 species survive, and most are endangered in their natural habitats in Central and South America and South Africa. They are slow growers, so mature cycads, which were mostly what was taken from Fairchild, are considered very valuable.

The thieves took the plants from the outdoor rain forest and an enclosed conservatory while a security guard was in another part of the garden, Fairchild officials said.

"They have shallow roots and can be ripped up and thrown in a pot," said Joe Frankie, who works at Jene's Tropicals in St. Petersburg. "They're easy to transplant and grow."

"I can't imagine cycads," said Kim Hutton, a botanist and volunteer coordinator with the botanical gardens at the University of South Florida in Tampa. "They transplant easily, but they're heavy. They had to have a market for them out of state." "We think all the cycads have gone to California to a private collector who let it be known that they're interested in rare species and don't ask questions," said Julia Kornegay, director of Fairchild Tropical Garden.

The loss is more than in financial terms, Kornegay said. "Any one of them is a major loss to the gene pool of that species. Some we'll try to collect in the wild. Others we'll try to propagate ourselves."

She said this is the largest theft in the history of the 83-acre garden, which was established in 1938.

Holst, of Selby Gardens, said "our No. 1 theft problem is orchids. They can be tucked inside a purse."

Allen, Fairchild's conservatory manager, felt most keenly the loss of the zamia pseudoparasitica, with leaves up to nine feet long cascading down from a conservatory wall. The thieves ripped it from the wall and hacked its fronds off.

"We've been through so much together. (The zamia is a) female, and her brother was killed during Hurricane Andrew. I was so proud of it, I put it in a prominent place. I made it more vulnerable. I would recognize it on the spot even without its leaves."

Kornegay said the garden is installing cameras and moving some plants to areas with tighter security. And she still believes in the possibility of a happy ending to this seedy episode.

And if they are discovered thriving, Elian-like, in a new home, would she insist on their return?

"Certainly," she said.

If you have information, contact officials at Fairchild Tropical Garden at (305) 667-1651.

- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story.

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