Why would people who seemingly love cacti and succulents the most—passionate ornamental plant collectors—become engaged in activities that threaten their flourishing? Delving into the world of succulent collecting, Jared Margulies explores the mystery of why ardent lovers of these plants engage in their illicit trade—even at the risk of driving some species to extinction.

Drawing on several years of ethnographic and participatory research among collectors, conservationists, law enforcement agents, plant smugglers, and botanists, this research suggests that understanding some illegal wildlife trades requires deeper interrogation of human desires than matters of economy, profit, or greed alone. This talk will explore the character of illegal and illicit international succulent trades, but also make an argument for deeper engagement with matters of desire, anxiety, and the unconscious in how humans reshape species futures.

Jared Margulies is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His book, The Cactus Hunters: Desire and Extinction in the Illicit Succulent Trade, was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2023. He was named a 2024 National Geographic Explorer for his new research exploring illicit harvesting and trade in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) in North Carolina, USA.
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The Linnean Society works to inform, involve and inspire people of all ages about nature and its wider interactions through our collections, programmes and publications. Founded in 1788, the Society takes its name from the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778).

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