Cultivate awareness that picking endangered wild plants is a crime

A FARMER IN LUSHI COUNTY, Henan province, was reportedly given a three-year suspended prison sentence and fined 3,000 yuan ($436) for illegally collecting endangered plants. Southern Metropolis Daily commented on Thursday:

The man picked three boat orchids, an endangered species, and was detained by the local forest police for a week. If, as he said, he thought they were weeds, it must have come as a shock to the farmer that the plants he dug up on his way home could land him in prison, as he received a three-year prison sentence, suspended for three years, and a 3,000 yuan fine, besides his weeklong detention.

He claims he did not know what he had taken from the ground is endangered, and that he did not mean to cause any trouble, which if true means he has good reason to question his penalties.