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Wednesday - March 28, 2012
From: Atlantis, FL
Region: Select Region
Topic: Non-Natives, Trees
Title: Illegal to remove an orange blossom from ground in Florida from Atlantis FL
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
Is there any law that prevents someone from removing an orange blossom from the ground in Florida?ANSWER:
This sounds a lot like the rumors of the law that says it's against the law to pick bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas. What is against the law is trespassing onto private land and taking property (i.e., blooms or plants) from said property.We find it hard to believe that there would be any problem in removing orange blossoms from property; more likely the property owner would appreciate having some of the "trash" removed. Still, it's never a good idea to do anything on private land without permission, even removing a spent blossom.
We checked several sites on Florida's state flower, Citrus sinensis and, again, no mention of hands-off blossoms on the ground. Once they are on the ground, they are basically dead. They will still have that lovely fragrance which attracts pollinators, but they will soon turn brown and blow away. And since Citrus sinensis is not even native to Florida but to Vietnam, northwest India and southern China, we can't see how it would even reflect state patriotism to pick up a fallen blossom.
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