Social media's love of rare plants causing black market boom

Cacti stand near the Monte Redondo wind turbine in Chile. In 2020, police officers discovered cacti from the Atacama Desert during a raid in the Italian province of Ancona. About 1,000 plants were confiscated. Photo: Ricardo Ribas/via ZUMA Press/dpa

A photo of a rare, unusual-looking plant is shared more than 10,000 times on social media. Under the entry, the comments rapidly pile up.

"I'd love to have one of those!" and "Where can I get one?" A few weeks later, smugglers in South Africa are caught with the endangered plant species, whose trade is illegal.

"We receive a new report of plant poaching almost every day," complains Pieter van Wyk, a botanist who works closely with the South African National Biodiversity Institute.