Rare snowdrops worth £70 each stolen by English bulb bandits

Police and wildlife conservation groups said a several gangs from England are making dozens of raids in early spring, sometimes using JCBs, because the chances of being caught in remote woodlands are low.

Snowdrop thieves have in recent years targeted St Boswells in the Borders, woods to the north of Perth, and areas in Kelso.

A spadeful of bulbs can fetch 15 but some rarer varieties can be sold to enthusiasts for as much as 70 each. Many of the bulbs are packed into vans and sold in the Lincolnshire and Wisbech areas of England which are traditional bulb-growing areas.

Others are traded in Europe with the remainder sold in car boot sales or garden centres.

Brian Stuart, head of the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU), based in North Berwick, said: "We know these crimes are taking place but because these people are not caught in the act, we are having to rely on anecdotal reports.''

Police crackdowns are also hampered by a lack of co-ordinated recording of incidents UK-wide.

In an attempt to highlight the damage to Scotland's natural heritage, the UK NWCU is working on "impact statements" so the courts can get tough on offenders.

Steve Parnwell, a former chief superintendent with Cambridgeshire Police and a bulb expert, confirmed gangs were operating in his area.

He said: "We caught people with crates with several thousand bulbs in their vans on some occasions. They are then sold to unscrupulous people who may be in the bulb line of work.

"These people use specially adapted garden tools, using scaffolding poles, to dig up the plants. Because the snowdrops are in woodland, the tree roots make it tougher to dig them up and ordinary garden tools get broken with the pressure."

Some snowdrop enthusiasts, known as galanthophiles, will pay big money for a single, rare bulb. A lorryload of snowdrop bulbs, valued at 60,000, was seized in Fife in 2003.

Dr Max Coleman, science communicator at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, which is holding Scotland's first snowdrop conference on 20 February, said: "People get quite fanatical about snowdrops and the rarer they are, the more appealing they become.

"When collectors are in this frame of mind, they don't seem to care about the long-term survival of the plants. They are overcome by a crazy fever."

It is illegal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) to uproot snowdrops without the landowner's permission, but black-market trade is regarded as low risk, with far softer penalties than those for trafficking drugs, tobacco and drink.

The Scottish Landowners Federation has advised its members to increase security. Catherine Erskine, of the Cambo estate at Kingsbarns, Fife, whose company is the main mail-order supplier of snowdrop bulbs in Scotland, said: "This is definitely a problem with gangs turning up in white Transit vans. Any landowner with snowdrops knows this."

FACTFILE

The snowdrop (Galanthus vivalis) is regarded as the first flower of spring, symbolising purity and the cleansing of the earth after winter.

According to legend, the snowdrop first appeared when Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden. An angel consoled them and blew upon some snowflakes which were transformed into snowdrops.

There appears to be no record of snowdrops growing wild in Britain before 1770, and the first garden reference is in Gerard's Herbal of 1597. It is thought that monks may have brought the flower from Italy in the 15th century, as it is frequently found in the gardens of old monasteries.

Pharmaceutical companies use extracts from snowdrop bulbs for a class of medications called acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, used to treat Alzheimer's disease.