‘Corona-tourists have dug rare cowbells up in the Hills of Mols to plant them in their fucking gardens.’
so begins Morten D. D. Hansen, curator of the Natural history Museum in Aarhus, a lookup on Twitter, and continues:
‘A national ansvarsart that takes 100 years to establish itself.
‘Irreplaceable. We are so bored of it.’
A kobjælde is a small flower, which can have many different colors. It can be everything from ten centimetres up to 40 centimetres, and is as written a quite rare species here at home.
Jes Aagaard, biologist and nature guide at Nature, it seems also, that it is a sad story, to kobjælderne has disappeared.
“that is true too bad at it here, it is that they are made in the same species, how to grow them in the garden centers. It costs 39,95 dollars,” says Jes Aagaard, B. T., and continues:
“When you remove a plant from a site that has some specific requirements, næringsforhold, etc., then there is a risk that they die. Therefore, you should not plant them at home.”
“So in many ways it is silly with stupid, that you go out and steal on the way.”
Jes Aagaard says that it has been stolen a little over 500 cowbells from the Hills of Mols.
And it is quite a big part, when Denmark has 20 percent of all the cowbells in the whole world.
What makes kobjælden so rare, is that it requires very specific soil properties:
“exactly kobjælden grows on something called the nutrient-poor dry grasslands. And it is a rare commodity in our nature. So it is not, because there are a lot of sites, where it can just jump out and take over,” says Jes Aagaard.
And even though you would think that plantetyve was not at the game so often, it is in fact not the first time that are being stolen rare flowers and plants. There has in the past been stolen a very rare orchid, and according to Jes Aagaard, there is only one thing to do in the fight against thieves:
“Beside the best defense is really to tell all people, that we have something out there that is super rare, and we must help each other to take care of. So the more eyes and ear that are out there, the better we can take care of it,” he says.
“We have neither afford or the opportunity to ask the guards out,” concludes Jes Aagaard.
