'Irreplaceable' plant specimens destroyed by customs officials with ** chill
 

'Irreplaceable' plant specimens destroyed by customs officials with ** chill
http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/qSKC3hP51JG0...457c99d49a.jpghttp://a.amz.mshcdn.com/assets/feed-...8be198fb13.jpghttp://a.amz.mshcdn.com/assets/feed-...6a4ca77139.jpg
Fun fact: Australia's custom officials are k**wn for procedures teetering on the absurdly overzealous, thanks to the continent's unique natural environment.

But those procedures are under investigation, after officials destroyed "irreplaceable" rare flowering plants sent from France. "They were the first type specimens collected of a species," Michelle Waycott, chair at the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, told ABC News.*

"That would be the equivalent of material collected in the Flinders expedition, going and then destroying those. So literally irreplaceable collections and of high historic and scientific value." Read more...

More about Plants, Plant, Environment, Quarantine, and Australiahttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Mashable/~4/e5XKGutIwhY