The plants pictured here are Modjadji cycads, which poachers rip from the earth and sell forvast sums of money. Don Boroughs uncovers a trade that could make these living fossils go the same way as the dinosaurs. Over the years, South African policeman Gert van der Merwe has gone undercover to catch ivory and horn smugglers. But on a balmy May day in the Strydpoortberge mountains, he is casting a net for poachers dealing in a species more critically endangered than either elephants or rhinos. Just 250 Lydenburg cycads - part of an ancient order of palm-like plants coveted by gardeners for their beauty and rarity - cling to existence in this region, and van der Merwe has heard that a villager is peddling these cycads, Encephalartos inopinus.
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机译：图中的植物是Modjadji cycads，它们被偷猎者从地上挖出来并出售可观的金钱。唐·波洛斯（Don Boroughs）发现了一种贸易，可以使这些活化石与恐龙走同样的路。多年来，南非警察格特·范·德·默韦（Gert van der Merwe）秘密行动，抓获了象牙和角走私者。但是在五月五日在斯特赖德堡山上的一个宜人的日子里，他正在为偷猎者制造网，他们从事的交易是比大象或犀牛更受威胁的物种。仅有250棵Lydenburg的苏铁-是一种古老的棕榈状植物的一部分，因其美丽和稀有性而被园丁们梦-以求-紧紧地存在于该地区。vander Merwe听说有一个村民在兜售这些苏铁，即Encephalartos inopinus。
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