It’s easy to notice the arrival of spring in a gray, dirty megalopolis. Just keep an eye out for the babushkas who congregate near underpasses and metro stations and hawk the first forest flowers out of baskets. Called snowdrops, these tender, translucent florets are a popular gift for Women’s Day. The problem is, they are an endangered species, and their sale is prohibited by law.
Nevertheless, spring flowers are sold every hour near metro stations in Kyiv, according to a recent report by the Ukrainian National Ecological Center, a civic organization. But a basket of snowdrops, such as the one recently discovered by the group at the central Bessarabska square, sells for Hr 800 – apparently enough money to take the risk of being busted by the police.
The law not only specifically prohibits picking snowdrops in the forest, it bans any sale of them also. Even if someone grows them on the balcony, they could still be fined for up to Hr 150 per stem for selling them.
But the first snowdrops come to Kyiv not from residential balconies, but from warmer Crimea. The State Ecological Inspection, a government body, uncovered two big markets that illegally sold early spring blooms in Simferopol and Dzhankoi in Crimea during their February raids. Such raids took place throughout the month to combat illegal trade in rare plants.
