can I go picking wild flowers in the woods?

[falkor]

what is the score? any law to stop me?

[powdermonkey]

Provided it's for personal use & not for selling, and provided it's not a rare or endangered plant, no. Otherwise it's an offence under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. Maybe Special Branch (ho ho) would be involved?

[falkor]

spot on PM, well said!

A man harvested thousands of wild flower bulbs from a beauty spot so he could illegally sell them on the internet.
William Robson Adams, 64, who has now been fined £370, was brought to justice thanks to the vigilance of residents in Dalston, near Carlisle.
They raised the alarm after realising thousands of wild flowers were vanishing from a local woodland.

interesting news report in today's TIMES and other newspapers detailing the "theft" of wild flowers/ bulbs on a grand scale by a local who saw a "business opportunity"

like you said "Provided it's for personal use & not for selling" how did you know it so well? any cases you have come across? or all part of PCSO training?

[powdermonkey]

It cropped up (ha!) when a woman was reported for nicking the daffodils from a council owned park. The root (ha!) cause was she was giving them to her mother for mother's day. I seem to recall a charge of criminal damage was considered. Can't remember what, if anything, she was eventually done for. I hope it was a lesson for her and she turned over a new leaf (ha!).

[7133]

It came up years ago but it was kids damaging flowers. Essentially the same thing I guess ...sort of. No-one where I worked was bothered and it didn't get dealt with in the end. But i had a brief look into it. Something to do with cultivated plants being damaged was the nearest I got. But hey, it was daft kids. Doesn't hurt to have something to threaten them with though does it ...